Take Us Back
by Lady of Zylon
Summary: Sequel to A Soldier's Heart. It's been a little over eight months since Caterina was separated from the others, and she still hasn't found them. Now, she's with a new group of survivors, people that she had known before the start of this zombie apocalypse. Caterina has begun to give up on ever seeing Daryl again, but will the powers that be allow her to give up so easily?
1. Introduction

**Author's Note**

So I'm not sure how this turned out. I think that I might've been trying too hard lol. But, regardless, I've made you guys wait long enough, so I wanted to post this today. I hope you guys like it as an introduction chapter! If not, I severely apologize. I should get better with the next chapter and so on.

* * *

"Remind me again why Alison couldn't come hunting with me."

Caterina watched the shoulders of the man walking in front of her sag as he heaved a heavy sigh for what was probably the hundredth time that day. They had been trekking through the woods for four hours now, and she had asked the same question several times at this point. She knew that he was getting more than a little irritated with her, but she didn't particularly care. It wasn't every day that she managed to annoy him like that, and she was secretly enjoying it, like any little sister would.

"She does not have the stomach for it," Gabriele reminded her. "She would not be able to bring herself to shoot anything."

Caterina scoffed. "That's a lie and you know it. Alison is the one who helps me gut whatever game we bring back."

Gabriele didn't say anything. Instead, he just continued on the familiar route back to their camp. He and Caterina were oftentimes sent out to gather supplies for their camp when they started to run low. In reality, they still had plenty of food. But they were in the mindset that they shouldn't let any food go to waste. So when they found animals during their scavenging missions, they always made sure to bring it back. The only things that they seemed to run out of were basic stuff, like toilet paper and batteries, razors and feminine products—stuff that people took advantage of back in the good ol' days.

"You're worried that she'll have a seizure and I won't be able to keep her safe," Caterina continued. "Which is bullshit, by the way."

"Could we stop with this?" he pleaded, exasperated.

"Maybe when you give me a legitimate reason why she can't come with me."

He finally stopped and turned to face her. Gabriele looked a lot like his sister. He had the same black hair (which he kept in a messy yet professional style), the same tan skin, the same brown eyes… The only real difference between them was their sex. And the calm patience that was always reflected in Gabriele's eyes. In regards to their appearance, they were the same. When it came to their personalities, however, they couldn't be more different. While Caterina was aggressive and outgoing, Gabriele was more calm and reserved. He acted more with his head while Caterina acted on instinct and heart.

Caterina stopped as well, standing only a few feet away from him. She crossed her arms and stared, waiting for him to explain why he was so adamant about Alison staying behind at camp when she and Gabriele went out.

"I do not feel comfortable with it," he said in that ever so placid tone of his.

"Because you don't think I could keep her safe," she challenged.

"No, I am confident that you could. You are strong, piccina, in more ways than one," Gabriele tried to appease her, very aware of how defensive Caterina was when it came to her abilities as a warrior. "But if Alison had a seizure while you two were out here in the open, you would not be able to move her safely, which would leave you vulnerable as well. I am not ready to risk that."

Caterina looked off to the side, realizing the logic behind his words. It was true; if Alison went out hunting with her and she had a seizure for whatever reason, Caterina wouldn't be able to move her until it was over. And if there were walkers nearby, they would be drawn to the sound of her fits and they would both be dead, because there was no way that Caterina would leave her behind. Chances were, she would end up giving herself up to the walkers while trying save Alison. Gabriele knew that. She had told him about how she gave up the possibility for her own safety eight months ago just so that another woman from her group would be saved, someone who she had known for a short amount of time. God knows what Caterina would do to save someone who she had known almost her entire life.

"We should hurry," she muttered before continuing past her brother.

Gabriele turned and watched her walk past him, allowing himself a small smile at her stubbornness. She knew that he was right, and still she refused to outwardly admit it. That was how she had always been, ever since she was a child.

He readjusted the line of squirrels and rabbits that he had thrown over his shoulder and followed Caterina.

* * *

It took them another hour to reach camp. They had been stationed in the same place for the past month or so, and the surrounding areas were quickly becoming barren so they were forced to move out further and further each time that they made supply runs. Caterina figured that they had about a week left before they would be forced to move on.

As they neared camp, Caterina was able to pick up the telltale growling of their pet.

"Gabriele? Cat?" a feminine voice called out warily.

They passed through a line of trees into a small clearing, where two people were waiting for them along with a six-year-old Belgian malinois named Edgar (after Edgar Alan Poe). He was lying in the dirt at their feet, no longer growling now that he knew that who the two figures that he had heard approaching camp were. Alison was standing with an anxious expression, which changed into a look of relief when she saw that Caterina and Gabriele were back unharmed. Next to her was an older man who looked a lot like the Miller siblings. He had a full head of salt and pepper hair and the same brown eyes as his daughter, mischievousness and full of life. He was exactly what you would expect from a retired military man, right down to the arms full of tattoos and the surprisingly toned muscles.

"Oh thank god," Alison breathed as she hurried forward to hug the two siblings.

"What did I tell you about calling out like that?" Caterina chastised her.

"I'm sorry. You were gone for so long. We were starting to worry."

Their father raised his hand, drawing everyone's attention to him. "_She_ was worried. _I_ had the utmost faith in you," he clarified, which earned an eye roll from Alison. He just smiled and sat back down on the log that he and Alison had been sitting on when his children arrived.

"Mi dispiace," Gabriele apologized, seeing that Caterina wasn't about to explain for them. "We were forced to travel further to find everything that we needed."

"We're not going to be able to stay here for much longer," Caterina pointed out as she removed her backpack and dropped it next to one of the two medium-sized tents that made up their camp so that she could sit down next to her father. Edgar raised his head and gave a low whine. Caterina reached out and rubbed his ears.

"How much longer do we have?" Alison asked.

"Maybe a week."

Alison dragged Gabriele over to the log that lay on the opposite side of the campfire and sat them both down. "Where will we go this time?" she wondered, looking directly at Caterina.

Caterina gave a resigned sigh. "We'll have to move east. This area is getting too crowded with walkers. It isn't safe."

The others exchanged knowing looks. Ever since she had joined them a few months ago, she had been reluctant to leave the general area. Any time that their father, Michele, tried to suggest them moving to another city, she argued that it was safer to stay where they knew was safe. She never said so outright, but they knew that the only reason that she wanted to stay was because of the group that she had been separated from a little over eight months ago. It took them a month to get the story out of her, and since then she never spoke of them, apart from the offhanded comment every now and again. They had managed to piece together enough from her slip ups that she had been very close to this group. She said that she had given up looking for them after the first three months, but they didn't believe her. Otherwise, she would've allowed them to leave sooner. Even if she wouldn't admit it, they knew that she was still hoping that she would stumble upon them during one of their runs. That was why she always volunteered to go gather supplies.

"Bene. We will stay here three more days, and then we will pack up and head east," Michele decided.

Alison and Gabriele nodded while Caterina just ran her fingers through her hair. She was trying to hide it, but it was obvious that she was unsettled by the idea of leaving. But she knew that it was necessary for them to continue to survive.

* * *

**Vocabulary**

Mi dispiace—I'm sorry

Piccina—little one

Bene—fine/okay


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note**

As promised, here's the first chapter (after the introduction)! I think I did pretty well with it, although it might be a bit rushed towards the end. But I've been writing this since 11:30 this morning, so I think my brain is exhausted lol. It wasn't hard to write… Okay, it was in certain parts. I'm sure you'll be able to tell which parts. But that's not the reason why it took so long. I just had some trouble focusing. I kept wanting to get up and wander my apartment. BUT it's finally done!

It's a little short (at least compared to my usual chapters), but I didn't want to start in on the prison scene just yet. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy, as always!

* * *

Even as she helped the others get everything together, Caterina still had trouble believing that they were actually leaving. It had been eight months and she hadn't found her friends, but it didn't mean that they weren't still in the area. But there weren't any signs that they were.

In the beginning, they had left signs to say where they had been or were going—either an arrow carved into a tree or a strip of brightly colored cloth tied to shrubbery. A month before she found her family, the trail stopped. She told herself that they were still leaving signs, and that she just was not looking in the right place, but she knew better. The reason that she wasn't finding them was because there was no more.

It hurt to think that her friends, the people that she had done so much for, had given up on her. But she didn't blame them (or at least she tried not to). For all they knew, she was dead. After all, eight months was a long time for someone to survive on their own, especially in a world where the dead was walking about and eating the living.

There'd been plenty of times in the months that she spent alone that Caterina had thought that she wouldn't survive. She used up a majority of her time running from hordes of walkers, hiding up in the trees or in the crawl spaces beneath houses. For a while, she had completely reverted to survival mode. She didn't bother with essentials, like washing or cleaning herself or her clothes. She didn't build fires to keep herself warm or cook her meat; instead, she made herself a debris bed with what-ever foliage that she could find and ate meat raw.

By the time that Gabriele found her holed up inside a farmhouse, she had become almost primeval. It took her a while to re-acclimate once she joined her family's camp. She knew that she'd been difficult those first two months. She wouldn't let anyone touch her or get too close after their first meeting. It was actually only recently that she started letting them hug her again.

Caterina was pulled from her thoughts when she felt a tug on her shirt.

She looked down at the hem of her shirt, a fraction of which was tucked into Edgar's mouth. He was staring up at her with pleading eyes, a low whine emitting from his throat.

"I believe he wants you to take him for a walk," Michele commented from where he and Gabriele were taking down the tents.

Caterina sighed and reached down to rub Edgar's ears. "All right, boy. Give me a minute."

Edgar released her shirt, his tail wagging excitedly. Caterina rolled her eyes at his weird behavior. For a dog surviving in the zombie apocalypse, he sure was excitable. When she had first seen him, she'd expected him to be an aggressive protector. Instead, he had run straight up to her and tackled her to the ground so that he could lick her in the face. He acted as if the world _hadn't_ changed. Sure, he was a dog, but Belgian malinois were a smart breed, and Edgar was no exception. He understood the dangers of this new world. But it didn't seem that it had affected his personality at all. It was...refreshing.

She grabbed her crossbow from where she had placed it next to the campfire and slung it over her shoulder. As soon as she had it in her hands, Edgar took off into the surrounding trees. Caterina chuckled to herself as she followed after him.

While Edgar trotted through the forest around their camp, Caterina followed at a much slower place. She knew that, for the moment, they didn't have to worry about any walkers meandering around nearby. She and Gabriele were very thorough in making sure that their camp was safe. At any rate, they had trained Edgar to warn them when there were walkers coming upon their doorstep. Belgian malionis have a keen sense of smell, and Edgar was able to distinguish the rotting smell of walking corpses from the foul odor that hung constantly in the air. It was very convenient, and it was probably the reason that Caterina's family had survived for so long. Michele was former military, so of course he was an excellent survivalist. Gabriele was good with hunting and tracking, and he knew how to survive in the wild, but he wasn't much of a fighter. And Alison? Well, she had become a better shot recently, but she still didn't have much of a fighting spirit.

Edgar stopped suddenly, staring out into the trees at something that only he could see. Caterina froze, expecting him to start growling (which was his signal that there were walkers nearby). Instead, he just took off again.

"Edgar!"

When he didn't stop or respond to her voice, Caterina cursed to herself and hurried after him.

It took her only a minute to realize where Edgar was going. Having been in this town for so long, she knew it like the back of her own hand, the forests included. And the direction that Edgar was running in lead straight to a street that cut through the wooded areas. And if he wasn't growling…

Caterina picked up her pace, hoping that she would be able to catch Edgar before he reached the road. But no such luck. He was really bolting, which meant that he was excited about whatever scent he had caught. Her stomach turned nervously. She hoped that she was wrong about what Edgar had possibly picked up on. At the same time, she wished that she wasn't.

Her wish was granted when she spotted Edgar on the road with two familiar faces knelt at his side and another familiar face standing over them.

She wasn't sure how she was feeling as she hide herself in the trees, watching as Edgar familiarized himself with the people around him. They all seemed just as excited as he was at the prospect of a dog. Edgar was probably the first dog that any of them had seen since the apocalypse started. Caterina knew that she should be excited too, but she couldn't quite bring herself to feel it. After spending so much time looking for them and never finding them, after feeling like it was pointless to keep searching but not able to give up, there they were, gathered just a few meters away.

It figured that this would happen just after she had decided to completely give up on finding them.

"Where do you think he came from?" Carl wondered as he struggled halfheartedly to keep Edgar from licking his face.

"I'm not sure," his father replied. "But I don't think he's wild. He's too well-kept."

"Which means his owner should be nearby," Hershel agreed.

They were silent as everyone exchanged worried looks. Caterina ducked further behind the tree that she was hiding behind as their eyes started roaming the trees lining the road. When she did, she accidentally stepped on a branch and it snapped under her weight. She flinched at the sound, knowing that the others would've heard it.

"We know you're there," an all too familiar voice called out, the sound of it causing Caterina's heart to clench. "Come on out and I might not shoot an arrow through your head."

Caterina hesitated, for a moment entertaining the idea of just running off instead of complying. But Gabriele would kill her if she went back to camp without Edgar. Not to mention the people on the road would probably follow her. If she ended up leading them to camp, her brother would only be angrier. Although she hadn't told him about the others, he didn't seem very impressed with the stories that she had told. He believed that they were the reason she had ending up like she had after she was separated from them. She tried to tell him that it had actually been her own fault, for making Daryl leave her behind so that he could save Carol, but he seemed adamant to blame them for it.

Finally, Caterina took in a deep breath and stepped out from behind the tree, her hands raised submissively as she walked into view.

As she stood on the side of the road, staring at all the faces that she had missed for the past eight months and being stared by the same faces, she felt her throat close. She swallowed hard in an attempt to open it, but it only managed to worsen the feeling.

She allowed her gaze to fall on every face in front of her, starting with Lori who was sitting in the passenger seat of Hershel's car, staring out of the windshield at her in shock and ending with Rick—Rick, not Shane—who was running a hand over his rugged face, apparently in just as much disbelief as the others.

And then her gaze doubled back to the one face that she had missed the most.

Daryl didn't look much different from the last time that she had seen him. He even had that familiar scowl on his face that she both loved and hated. She thought for a moment that he was scowling like that because he wasn't happy to see her, but then she saw the relief clearly reflected in his eyes. But with that relief was anger (whether that anger was directed at her, she had no idea), and something else that Caterina had trouble identifying.

"Holy shit…" Glenn muttered as he stared wide-eyed at her.

The sound of his voice seemed to snap the others out of their shock, and Carl was the first to react.

His face lit up as if he were seeing one of his best friends after spending summer break away from them, and he climbed on to his feet so that he could bolt across the street. He barreled straight into Caterina and threw his arms around her waist, much like he had done the day that he had been allowed out of bed rest after he got shot so long ago. Caterina grunted as the wind was knocked out of her by the force of his impact, her hands coming up to rest on his arms. He was much taller than he'd been the last time that he hugged her like that. Before, he had just barely reached the top of her rib cage. Now, he was tall enough that he came up to her chest.

"You've gotten taller," was the only thing that Caterina could think to say then. But it seemed to be enough for Carl, who pulled away just enough that he look her in the face, grinning brightly. The sight of his grin caused the corners of her lips to turn up slightly, and she reached up to smash his father's Deputy hat down further on his head. "It's good to see you, kid."

Carl pulled away to readjust his hat, still smiling.

Glenn was the next to approach her, laughing in a surprised yet happy way. He pulled her into a friendly hug, which Caterina returned a little hesitantly. He pulled away a few seconds later so that he could hold her at arm's length to look over her. "I can't believe it! We thought you were dead!"

"Well, it's nice to know you have so much faith in me," Caterina was quick to reply. It seemed that she was already falling back into old routines with them.

"It's nice to see you too," he laughed.

As soon as Glenn released her, Carol was quick to take his place. Then it was Maggie and Beth, something that kind of surprised Caterina, since she hadn't known them as well as she had the others. Not that she didn't appreciate it. She had liked them both well enough back when they had spent time together at the farm. After the Greene sisters, Hershel came forward to greet her, followed by T-Dog.

And then Lori climbed out of the car and waddled over to her.

Caterina gave a surprised grunt as Lori pulled her into her arms fiercely. Her protruding belly pressed into her own, and Caterina took a small step back to put some space between them, as if she were somehow hurting the baby by letting her hold her so close. She wasn't surprised that Lori had gotten so big. It had been eight months since she'd seen any of them, and Lori had already been several weeks into her pregnancy when they first found out that she was even pregnant.

"Where the hell have you been?" Lori breathed in her ear.

"It's great to see you too, Lori," she muttered sarcastically.

Lori pulled away to look at her, very serious. Caterina glanced between her and Daryl, who hadn't moved an inch since she had stepped out on to the road. He was still staring at her with that scowl of his, and Caterina sighed. They both wanted to know why she hadn't met up with them at the highway like she had promised all those months ago, and why they hadn't run into her until now. She still wondered that second part herself. It seemed really unlikely that they would've doubled back to this area if they'd ended up leaving like she had begun to think. So they had kept to the area just like she had. Somehow, that realization didn't make her feel any better.

Before Caterina could even attempt to try to explain, her brother's voice called out from behind her.

"Caterina! Edgar!"

Gabriele stepped out on the side of the road and froze, staring at the group of people standing in front of him. His eyes flashed over every face quickly, and Caterina could already see the wheels turning in his head. He finally turned his gaze on Caterina, and it was obvious that he had already deduced who these people were, even without having been told very much about them.

He moved to stand next to Caterina and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side . She had a strong urge to roll her eyes at his protectiveness, but she resisted it. Instead, she glanced across the street to where Daryl stood. His cobalt gaze was locked in on Gabriele's hand on her waist, and his jaw was tensed in that telltale sign of his that said he was pissed. Caterina wasn't sure if she should be annoyed or happy that he seemed pissed at Gabriele's familiarity with her.

"Who are these people, piccola?" Gabriele asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"They're friends of mine," Caterina answered, deciding to play along for now. "Do you remember the group that I told you about?" When he nodded, she motioned to the group in front of them. "Well, this is them."

Rick came forward now, seeming to sense that it was time to speak up. Like Daryl, he'd kept to the back while everyone else welcomed Caterina. The entire time, he'd been looking at the ground with an awkward look on his face. Caterina wasn't sure if it was from guilt (for whatever reason that he would have to feel guilty) or from not knowing how to respond to her sudden appearance.

"My name's Rick Grimes. This is my wife, Lori, and my son, Carl."

Gabriele nodded to Rick's family in greeting.

Rick motioned to the Green family now. "And this is Hershel and his two daughters, Beth and Maggie. That's Glenn, T-Dog, Carol, and that back there is Daryl," he went on, pointing to each person as he named them.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Gabriele said cordially. Only Caterina was able to hear the tension hidden in his voice. "My name is Gabriele."

"Gabriele?" Daryl repeated, seeming to have finally snapped out of whatever it was that had kept him silent up until that point. "You're Cat's brother?"

Rick looked between the two of them. "Brother?" he asked.

Gabriele nodded, although he didn't take his eyes off Daryl, who met his gaze evenly. His jaw was relaxed now, after learning who it was that had touched Caterina so familiarly. "Her older brother." He finally looked away from Daryl to Rick. "Caterina has told us a lot about you."

"I wish I could say the same."

"Do not take it personally," yet another voice spoke from within the trees.

Caterina looked back over her shoulder as her father stepped through the brush with Alison. She rolled her eyes. "What, you _all_ had to come check in on me?"

Her father gave her a sly grin but otherwise ignored her as he stepped forward to shake Rick's hand. "Caterina has a habit of keeping things to herself. I am Michele, her father. And this is Alison, my son's fiancée," he added, motioning to Alison, who waved with a bashful smile.

"It's nice to meet you," Rick greeted them both with a nod.

Michele looked around at the group and hummed. "It looks like you and your people have been having a hard time," he pointed out, taking in their careworn appearances. His gaze paused on Lori's pregnant belly before he turned back to Rick. "I take it you have been on the move for a while. Are you looking for somewhere in particular?"

Rick stared at him for a moment, obviously curious about how he had guessed that just by looking at them. He glanced over at Caterina, who just shrugged. He nodded as he turned his gaze back on Michele. "Sort of. We've just been lookin' for somewhere safe, somewhere that we would be able to stay for longer than just a few weeks and be safe."

Gabriele and Caterina exchanged looks, which Rick noticed.

"Do you know a place?" he asked somewhat hopefully.

"We've been in this area a while," Caterina started slowly. "We probably know the layout better than our hometown. But we're always finding new areas. A few weeks ago, Gabriele and I stumbled across a place that we thought would be pretty safe. It's fortified; it has fences. The thing is, it will take quite a bit of manpower to clear it, which is something that we don't have with only four people."

"Well, now you do."

"Aspetta," Michele chimed in, turning everyone's attention on him. "It is unwise to jump into action without any forethought. You should at least visit this place before you make a decision."

"Padre is right," Gabriele agreed. "Caterina and I will take you there so we can survey the area."

Rick nodded in thanks. "Let's get goin' then."

"I'll come too," Daryl decided as he walked over to where his motorbike was parked so that he could unhook his crossbow.

Gabriele sent him a withering look while he removed his backpack, handing it to Alison for her to hold. In return, she handed him his Smith & Wesson Model 221 .22 LR Rimfire. It had a homemade silencer on it, so that he could use it for hunting without having to worry about drawing any walkers with the noise.

"All right. The rest of you stay here," Rick instructed the others. "We'll be back soon."

* * *

Everyone was silent as they made their way through the woods to the train tracks that led straight past the place that Caterina had mentioned. She and Gabriele were in the lead, with Rick and Daryl following close behind. The entire time, Caterina could feel Daryl's gaze on her back. She felt like he was doing it just to make her feel uncomfortable (he knew that she hated it when people stared at her for too long). But, for some reason, she couldn't seem to make herself tell him to stop. She didn't know if it was because she had actually kind of liked the feel of his eyes on her, or if it was because she wasn't ready to say anything to him.

She had a sneaky suspicion that it was both.

Once they reached the tracks, they followed them down a few klicks before they reached an area that gave them a perfect view of this "fortress."

It was actually a prison. Caterina and Gabriele both knew a lot about the criminal justice system from their father, so they knew how well fortified prisons were. They knew that, if they were able to clear even a section of the prison cells, it would be one of the safest places in the world. The fences were more than enough to keep the walkers from getting at them, and once they figured out the layout of the prison, if there were any walkers inside, they would be able to lose them in the halls.

Caterina looked over at Rick, who was staring out at the prison with an appreciative gleam in his eyes.

"It's perfect."

* * *

**Vocabulary**

Piccola—sweetheart/honey

Aspetta—wait


	3. Chapter 2

Once the others had joined them at the prison, they carefully made their way down from the railroad tracks to the prison gates. There weren't very many walkers outside of the prison—most of them were in the field—so they didn't have to worry about drawing too much attention to themselves as they approached the fence. When they found a good enough place to enter, everyone gathered with their backs to Rick while he cut the links, keeping an eye on the few walkers that were on their side of the fence.

One of the walkers started stumbling towards them, and Glenn hurried forward and speared it with a lawn edger while Maggie came up behind him and bashed its head in with a hammer.

"Watch the backside!" T-Dog instructed.

"Got it."

Rick quickly finished making a hole big enough for them to squeeze through, and Caterina ushered everyone through it. When it was just her and Rick waiting outside of the fence, Rick hesitated, motioning for her to go through before him. But she shook her head and gave his shoulder a light push, indicating for him to go first. Even after being on her own for so long, Caterina still had that habit of being the last out of danger. Rick rolled his eyes and ducked through, with Caterina right on his tail.

As soon as Caterina was through, Daryl stepped up to force the two edges of the hole together, so Glenn could lace it closed with a length of orange wire. Caterina watched the two for a moment before she turning towards the sound of a throng of moaning coming from behind them. The walkers from the prison yard had spotted them and were making their way over to them.

She turned back around to watch Glenn finish patching up the fence. Just when he finished, a female walker came barreling toward him only to smash into the fence. Glenn jumped back with a surprised yelp, earning a small smile from Caterina and her family.

Now that they didn't have to worry about any walkers following them into the walkway, they started to make their way towards the front entrance. When they reached the gate blocking off the way to the entrance, Daryl stepped up to the front of the group and opened the gate, allowing everyone else to file through.

They paused to put down their stuff and observe the prison yard a bit more closely.

An overturn bus was set up in front of the entrance, as if it were acting as a ward, though it wasn't exactly in the way of the gate. Caterina looked across the yard at another entrance on the west side where the last guard tower was stationed. The gate separating the yard from the courtyards was still open, allowing the walkers from the prison to fill the yard.

"It's perfect," Rick muttered for the second time that day. "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard… We can pick off these walkers. We'll take the field by the night."

"But how do we shut the gate?" Hershel wondered.

"I'll do it," Glenn volunteered. "You guys cover me."

"No, it's a suicide run," Maggie argued.

"I'm the fastest."

"Actually, you _were_ the fastest," Caterina chimed in, bringing everyone's attention to her. At their confused looks, she motioned over to her brother. "Gabriele ran track in high school. He set a record for one hundred meters in nine seconds."

Everyone looked at Gabriele for confirmation, and he nodded.

"It's decided then," Rick said as he turned back to Glenn. "You, Maggie, Alison, Beth, and T-Dog draw as many as you can over there." He motioned to the walkway on the other side of the entrance. "And take Edgar"—he glanced at Caterina, silently asking if he had gotten the name right, and she nodded—"with you. Pop 'em through the fence. Daryl, Cat—you go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot. Take your time. We don't have a lot of ammo to waste. Hershel—you, Carl, and Michele take this tower." He nodded up to the tower right behind him.

Carl nodded. "All right."

"Gabriele and I will run for the gate."

Caterina met her brother's gaze and nodded to him before leaving with Daryl and Carol to go back to the north-eastern tower. Without exchanging even a word, the three of them ran up to the top of the tower and positioned themselves facing out into the field. Caterina readied her Beretta REC7 and aimed it down at the yard, waiting for the signal to start firing.

She watched as Rick and Gabriele readied themselves before Lori opened the entrance gate, and the two of them shot out into the yard. As soon as they cleared the gate, everyone up in the towers started firing. The rest of the group down in the walkways started banging on the fence and shouting (with the exception of Edgar, who was barking), trying to draw attention away from the two out in the field.

Caterina fired one shot after the other, all the while checking that Rick and Gabriel were safe. They were about halfway to the fence when Caterina saw a bullet hit the ground directly in front of Rick, missing him by only a few inches. Both he and Gabriele looked to the north-east tower at the same time that Caterina glanced over at where Carol stood.

"Sorry!" the woman called down to them.

Caterina shook her head, unable to keep the corners of her lips from turning up in an amused smile.

She gave off a few more rounds as she watched Rick and Gabriele continue the run. Finally, they made it to the gate, and Gabriele closed it quickly to prevent any more walkers inside the courtyard from filing out and allow Rick to link it shut.

As soon as it was closed, the two of them disappeared into the last tower.

"They did it," Carol breathed in relief.

Daryl cupped the side of his mouth to amplify his voice as he shouted to the others. "Light it up!"

The rest of the group took out their firearms and started finishing off what remained of the walkers in the field, Rick and Gabriele joining from the top of their tower. For what felt like hours, all that could be heard was the sound of gunfire, with Edgar's continued barking acting as a background noise. Then the last walker fell to the ground and silence fell.

Caterina lowered her Beretta and exchanged smiles with Carol before they and Daryl walked back down the tower to join the others at the entrance.

"Fantastic!" Carol shouted joyfully.

"Nice shootin'," Daryl complimented her, earning a bright smile from the older woman.

Hershel reached out and patted Daryl on the back in a silent "good job."

"You okay?" Carol asked as she approached Lori, who was holding open the gate to let the others through into the field.

"Haven't felt this good in weeks," Lori assured her.

She grinned and ran out into the field with Carl and Daryl. Caterina watched from the prison entrance with Lori as Carol spun around in circles, her arms spread out like a child when they were trying to make themselves dizzy. "We haven't had this much space since we left the farm!" she squealed.

Everyone else started filing out into the yard.

As Caterina and her family passed the overturned bus, one of the walkers lying nearby started to rise up from the ground. Without even pausing to look at it, Michele raised his 9mm Beretta NANO and fired a single shot into its head.

Caterina rolled her eyes at her father's display while T-Dog shouted excitedly from behind them.

"Woo!"

* * *

When night fell, everyone but Daryl and Rick was gathered around a large fire, feasting on leftover squirrel from the Miller siblings' hunt the day before. Daryl was up on the prison bus, keeping watch by the entrance, where everyone had parked their vehicles. Rick had taken to walking around the perimeter, checking for any holes that would compromise their safety.

It was relatively cold outside, which was why they had built the fire so big (also because they didn't have to worry about drawing any walkers to them anymore, now that they had two lines of fences protecting them).

Alison sat curled up at Gabriele's side while Michele sat between Lori and his daughter, whose lap Edgar had chosen to use as a pillow. Neither had their jackets anymore, having decided to lend them to those without—mainly Beth and Carl.

"Mmm," Glenn hummed as he finished his portion. "Just like mom used to make."

Everyone chuckled.

"Tomorrow, we'll pull the bodies together," T-Dog suggested. "We wanna keep them away from that water now. If we could dig a canal under the fence, we'll have plenty of fresh water."

"And this soil is good too," Hershel added. "We could plant some seed. Grow some tomatoes, cucumbers, soy beans…"

"That is his third time around," Michele said, obviously having not been paying much attention to what the others were saying. For those that new him, it wasn't really that surprising. Even if he was interested in the conversation being had, if he saw something more interesting, he would go off into his own little world. It was like he had ADD or something, except he's been tested before and received negative results.

Everyone followed his gaze to where Rick was slowly walking by the west gate.

"If there was any part of it compromised, he'd have found it by now," Hershel said.

"Si," Michele agreed. He glanced over at Lori. "Your husband is very cautious."

"He's always been that way," Lori informed him. "It took him forever to ask me to marry him."

Michele chuckled.

"Speaking of marriage…" Hershel started, looking at Michele. "Forgive my curiosity, but where is your wife?"

Alison and the Miller children exchanged mournful looks, while Michele lowered his gaze to the ground, watching his fingers as he picked apart a few blades of grass. It was a habit that he shared with his daughter.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

Michele waved off his apology. "No, it is all right. My Anita, she…she's always had a weak heart. And when this…" He motioned around them as he tried to think of the right word. "When this _apocalypse_ started, her heart could not take it. She died of a heart attack a few months in."

"I can't imagine how hard that must've been for you," Lori muttered.

He raised his gaze to give her a sad smile. "Grazie, Madonna."

"Cat?" Carol asked from across the fire, pulling the young woman's gaze to her. She was tossing several cooked pieces of meat into a bowl. Once it was filled as much as she dared to fill, she held it out in Caterina's direction. "Do you mind taking this up to Daryl?"

Caterina just stared at her for a moment. She didn't have to be a mind reader to know that Carol was playing matchmaker. Daryl had been avoiding talking to her ever since their little reunion, and she hadn't been all gung-ho about talking with him either. She wasn't even sure why. She figured that she would be happy to see Daryl again and she was, but she also felt awkward.

It wasn't because she no longer had feelings for him. Lord help her, she felt for him just as strongly as she had eight months ago, if not more so. And therein lied the problem.

It hadn't taken long after they were separated for Caterina to figure out that she loved Daryl. If she were honest with herself, she had loved him for some time before that, probably since the day after he was shot by Andrea. But love was something that Caterina didn't know _anything_ about. Sure, she had seen it in those around her, like her parents and Gabriele and Alison, but there was a huge difference between seeing it and experiencing it. Seeing it was warm and reassuring; but experiencing it was the most terrifying thing that Caterina had ever faced. And, honestly, she wasn't sure if she was ready to face it. That was why she'd been avoiding Daryl just as much as he'd been avoiding her.

But she supposed it couldn't be that way forever. If that evening were any indication (not to mention how things were in the past), she was sure to be partnered up with him many times in the future. If she didn't face the music now, it would be always awkward between them.

Finally, Caterina nodded and bucked her leg just enough to jostle Edgar out of his doze. "Edgar, up. Go bother Carl."

Edgar raised his head and gave a long, tired yawn before he got to his feet and trotted over to curl up next to Carl, close enough that his side was pressed against the boy's. Carl smiled and reached out to rub Edgar's ears, earning a contented whine from the dog.

Caterina rolled her eyes as she stood up, taking the bowl from Carol.

She walked as if she were going to a funeral, and she was sure that the others noticed. But she couldn't bring herself to walk any less stiffly. She was worried about what kind of conversation would come up between her and Daryl, if there was any conversation at all. While she wanted to talk with him about their separation, she didn't want to hear how angry he was at her, or how he no longer had any feelings for her besides comradery.

If Alison could hear Caterina's thoughts now, she would be sure to tell her that she was being ridiculous. She was putting too much thought into something that she should just let flow naturally. But it wasn't exactly in Caterina's style _not_ to over think things, especially when it came to things that she had no real experience with.

Caterina walked around to the underbelly of the bus and forced herself to look up at Daryl, who was already staring down at her. She tried to give her usual, cocky grin, but all she was able to conjure up was a timid smile.

"Permission to come aboard?" she asked.

Daryl nodded and strapped his crossbow to his back so that he could reach a hand down to Caterina. She hesitated for a moment before taking it, allowing him to help her up on the bus while she kept a hold of the bowl of squirrel meat in her other hand. She was able to find foot holes in the piping of the bus' stomach so that Daryl didn't have to support her weight entirely.

Once she was up on the bus with him, Caterina expected him to let go of her hand. But he kept hold of it as he stared down at her. The way that he'd pulled her up, she ended up standing close enough to him that their chests would be touching, if she dared to let herself breathe. Since that night at the farm, Caterina hadn't been this close to anyone other than her family. And the fact that it was _Daryl_ who she was standing so close to… Well, it definitely didn't make her feel any less anxious.

Caterina cleared her throat and pulled her hand from Daryl's grasp as she took a step back, putting some distance between them. She thought that she saw a look of hurt flash across his face when she did, but it was gone before she could be sure.

"Here," Caterina muttered as she held the bowl out to him.

Daryl took it with a nod, his fingers grazing across hers as he pulled it from her grasp. "Thanks."

She nodded as she crossed her arms in front of her, subconsciously closing herself off from Daryl. If he noticed it, he didn't show it. Instead, he turned back to look out at the open space on the other side of the fence. Some more walkers were staggering about out there, having been drawn by sound of their gunshots and Edgar's barking.

"So how does it look?" Caterina wondered.

"Looks secure. This was a good find," he praised.

She nodded in thanks and turned so that she could look over at the others gathered around the fire. Daryl turned to follow her gaze, which had settled upon her family.

"Where'd you find 'em?" he asked.

Caterina smiled slightly as she thought back upon the day that she found out that most of her family was still alive. "A few months ago. But I didn't find them. Gabriele and Edgar found me, holed up in that farmhouse we found when we were looking for Sophia." She saw Daryl look at her curiously from the corner of her eye and shrugged. "It was the first place that popped into my head when I was trying to think of a place where I would be safe."

Daryl nodded slowly, a thoughtful look on his face. "So you were by yourself for what, six months?"

"Not completely by myself," she replied somewhat offhandedly.

He rolled his eyes. "I don't think walkers count."

"No, you're right. They aren't very good company," she jested. "Horrible conversationalists."

Daryl scoffed as he knelt to set his bowl on the bus next to his feet before straightening back up and turning so that he was facing Caterina fully . "Enough with the fucking jokes," he snapped somewhat irritably. "Why did you do it?"

Caterina couldn't bring herself to look at him now that things had taken a more serious turn. So she continued to stare out at the others as she spoke, her expression set into a perfectly detached mask. "Why did I lie about meeting you at the highway?" she returned, although she already knew that it was what he was asking. "You wouldn't have let me go if I hadn't."

"Damn right, I wouldn't of," he barked before his voice took on a softer tone. "I left you to survive on your own."

She looked up at him from the corner of her eye at the distress in his voice. "_You_ didn't leave me to do anything. I made the decision to be left behind on my own," she replied, for some reason feeling like she needed to assure him that their separation hadn't been his fault; if anything, it had been hers.

"For eight months?" he shot back. When Caterina didn't say anything, he scoffed. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

A tense silence fell over them as Daryl turned to join Caterina in staring at the others.

"I _did_ make it to the highway," Caterina finally spoke, deciding that it would be best if they got this part of the conversation over with. She was sure that she wouldn't want to about it with any of the others, but she felt that it was important to at least talk with Daryl. Even if she had been close to the others, she somehow felt more comfortable opening up to Daryl than anyone else.

She saw Daryl looked down at her from her peripheral vision, waiting for her to continue.

"It took me two days to get there , but you were already gone by then. I found the signs that you'd been leaving , and I followed them—right up until they stopped." She paused as her throat constricted as she recalled how hurt she'd been when she stopped finding their signs that said they were still looking for her, that they hadn't given up on her. "Why did you stop leaving a trail?" she asked, her voice breaking slightly.

Daryl didn't say anything. Instead, he reached up to a thin chain hanging around his neck and pulled the rest of the necklace out of his shirt.

Caterina turned, unsure about what the action was supposed to mean. She paused when she realized that the necklace around his neck was actually a pair of dog tags. Frowning, she reached out to take the tags into her hand so that she could get a closer look at them. They were partly stained with blood, making it a little harder to make out what was engraved there. But she was able to read them:

_MILLER_

_CATERINA S._

_163-28-1858_

_O POS_

_CHRISTIAN_

She looked up at Daryl with a pinched brow. "My dog tags?"

He nodded, staring down at the bloodstained metal in her hands. "You were wearin' 'em the night we left the farm."

Caterina blinked, surprised that he had remembered that. He'd been standing right next to her when she put them on (she'd just had the sudden feeling that she should be wearing them), but he hadn't acted like he'd been paying attention. In fact, she'd been certain that he had been too engrossed in looking through her collection of weapons to notice what she was doing.

"I remember," she muttered as she lowered her gaze back to her tags. "I lost them a few days in when I was being chased by walkers. Where did you find them?"

"Rick and I found 'em around the neck of some dead woman," he explained in a dark tone, drawing Caterina's eyes back up to his face. "The face was all mangled, so we couldn't make an ID, but she had your build, and the same hair."

She closed her eyes as she realized where this was going.

"At first, I didn't wanna believe it was you. But then another month went by, and we hadn't found any sign of you." He paused. "I thought about breakin' away from the group, goin' off to look for you on my own. But then I remembered how pissed you got when I tried to do that after Sophia."

Caterina shook her head. "I'm so sorry."

"You ain't got nothin' to apologize for," Daryl grumbled.

She felt his calloused hand wrap around her jaw and lift her head, and she opened her eyes to look him in the face like he seemed to want her to. He was scowling like he had been before, but there wasn't any real anger in it now. Instead, it was more of a relieved scowl.

"But you pull a stunt like that again and I'm gonna beat your ass."

She smiled slightly. "Fair enough."

He kept a firm grip on her jaw as he stared at her, seeming to be taking in every aspect of her face like he was afraid that this was going to be the last time that he would be able to see her. And she supposed that it made sense for him to worry about that, since they had been separated for eight months after what happened at the farm. But there was something else that Daryl was trying to convey, something that he didn't seem to have the nerve to say outright.

Caterina reached up to grab on to his arm, suddenly feeling like she needed to be touching him. "I missed you too," she muttered.

Something flashed across his cobalt eyes, and he lowered his face towards hers. Caterina tensed, realizing that he wanted to kiss her. While part of her really wanted him to, another part of her (the part that retreated back into her when she'd been left on her own for six months) was terrified. It was almost like she was a teenager again, about to receive her first kiss and completely clueless about how she was supposed to respond.

Maybe that uncertainty was visible on her face, because Daryl paused with his face just a few inches from hers before he raised his head to press his lips to her forehead.

Caterina's heart leapt in her chest at the hidden meaning behind it (he _had_ seen how scared she had been, and this was a reassurance as well as a way to tell her just how much he had missed her over the past eight months), and she closed her eyes to better focus on the feeling.

Back at the fire pit, the rest of the group was staring over at the two figures standing up on the bus. While the Atlanta group had identical smiles on their faces at the sight of the two, and Alison and Michele were smiling along with them, Gabriele sat tensely with his arm wrapped a little too tightly around his fiancée's shoulders. He was staring over at the man standing too close to his sister, pressing a kiss to her forehead, with an angry gleam in his eyes.

Alison jabbed him in the ribs, making him jump and finally look away from the two. "Stop it. Just leave them alone," she chastised him, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Caterina had only had one boyfriend in her entire life, and Gabriele hadn't reacted any more warmly to that relationship than whatever relationship she seemed to have with Daryl.

Gabriele frowned, but he didn't let his gaze turn back on the bus. "Just what sort of relationship do those two have?" he asked instead.

"We're actually not sure," Carol admitted. "They were pretty secretive about whatever's been going on between them. But they seemed serious."

"About as serious as Daryl can be about someone that isn't his brother," Lori added.

They quickly fell silent again as Caterina and Daryl joined them around the campfire. Caterina sank back down into her earlier spot between her father and Carl, and Daryl settled in next to her. Lori and Carol exchanged knowing looks while Gabriele glared pointedly at Daryl, who returned his gaze with his usual scowl. He shifted closer to Caterina (who so far seemed oblivious to the growing animosity between the two of them) until he was practically pressed against her side, all the while staring back at her brother.

Alison smiled at this show of defiance and patted Gabriele's leg in an attempt to soothe him.

Michele was just as amused by Daryl's reaction to Gabriele as Alison was. It seemed that Caterina had managed to find someone who was just as stubborn and defiant as she was.

"Bethy, sing Paddy Reilly for me," Hershel asked suddenly, obviously trying to relieve some of the tension between Daryl and Gabriele. "I haven't heard that, I think, since your mother was alive."

"Daddy, not that one, please," Maggie begged.

Hershel looked thoughtful for a moment. "How about the Parting Glass?" he amended.

"No one wants to hear," Beth argued, obviously hesitant about singing in front of so many people. While she didn't always give off a self-conscious vibe, she was still a teenage girl. She was bound to be embarrassed about some things.

"I would like to," Michele spoke up. "Parting Glass was Anita's favorite song."

Beth looked even more hesitant to sing now.

Caterina glanced around at everyone and saw the insistence in their eyes as they all stared at Beth expectantly. "I'll sing it with you," she offered, seeing as it didn't seem like the others were about to let up any on this.

Beth turned to her with an appreciative look while the other Atlanta survivors looked surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah. How about I start?"

She nodded eagerly, and Caterina paused for a moment to recall the lyrics to her mother's favorite song before she started singing in a relatively soft voice. It had been a long time since she had sung in front of anyone too.

"_Of all the money_

_That e'er I've had_

_I spent it in good company…_"

Beth joined in now, her voice easily harmonizing with Caterina's.

"_And all the harm_

_That e're I've ever done_

_Alas, it was to none but me._

_And all I've done_

_For want of wit_

_To memory now, I can't recall_

_So fill to me the parting glass_

_Goodnight and joy be with you all._"

There was a pause where there would be instruments playing in the recorded song and, when they started up again, the other Greene daughter mixed her voice in with theirs.

_"Oh, all the comrades_

_That e'er I had_

_Were sorry for my going away_

_And all the sweethearts_

_That e'er I had_

_Would wish me one more day to stay_

_But since it falls unto my lot_

_That I should rise and you should not_

_I'll gently rise and I'll softly call_

_Goodnight and joy be with you all_

_Goodnight and joy be with you all."_

Everyone was silent for a moment, just reveling in the aftermath of the song. Rick had joined them at some point, kneeling between his wife and Michele.

"Beautiful," Hershel said with a kind smile.

"Magnifico," Michele agreed.

Rick nodded in agreement before looking around at everyone. "Better all turn in. I'll take watch over there," he said, nodding to the western tower. "We got a big day tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked.

He hesitated, shifting so that he could address everyone with a little more intent. "Look, I know we're all exhausted. This was a _great_ win. But we've gotta push just a little bit more." He looked up to the fence where the walkers from the courtyard were gathered. "Most of the walkers are dressed as guards and prisoners. It looks like this place fell pretty early."

"Which means the supplies may still be intact," Michele jumped in, understanding immediately what Rick was thinking.

Rick nodded. "Right. And they'd have an infirmary, a commissary…"

"An armory?" Daryl asked.

"No, they would not keep weapons inside with all of the prisoners," Gabriele replied. "The armory would be outside of the prison itself."

"He's right," Rick agreed. "The warden's offices would have info on the location." He gazed round at everyone. "Weapons, food, medicine… This place could be a gold mine."

"We're dangerously low on ammo, even with what Caterina and her family brought," Hershel reminded him. "We'd run out before we make a dent."

"That's why we have to go in there…hand-to-hand."

Alison and Rick's group looked hesitant while the Millers didn't seem at all worried. While not all of them were experienced fighters, and Michele and Gabriele were not properly acquainted with Rick's people, they were confident that they would be able to clear the courtyard if need be.

"After all we've been through, we can handle it," Rick said in an attempt to raise morale. "I know it." He looked down at his son with a small smile. "These assholes don't stand a chance."

When nobody made to argue against it, Rick nodded and stood up to return to the gate that he and Gabriele had closed. Caterina thought for a moment about going after him (Rick had been avoiding her just as much as she and Daryl had been avoiding each other, and she wanted to know why), but she was forced to decide against it as Lori scrambled onto her feet and waddled after him.

Caterina had noticed straight away that there seemed to be some tension between Rick and Lori. She wasn't sure what it was, but it seemed that Rick wanted next to nothing to do with her. But she knew that couldn't be true. Rick loved Lori, probably more than he loved anyone else (aside from Carl, of course). It was obvious in the way that he always physically reacted to her. Caterina had noticed that Rick always seemed to move closer to Lori whenever she was nearby, and how he shifted whenever she moved. It was one thing that made Rick's love for Lori so obvious. So for Rick to be seem so hostile towards Lori, something must've happened after she left to cause it, something that Rick couldn't seem to be able to get over.

Lori must've told him about her affair with Shane.

* * *

**Vocabulary**

Grazie—thank you

Madonna—miss/madame

Magnifico—magnificent


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**

Hey, guys! Sorry it's been a while since I posted. I just…uuuugh, I could NOT get into the first part of this. I wanted to get it over with because I knew that I would be able to get into better stuff once it was done, but I kept procrastinating by going off on Doctor Who and Torchwood kicks (because I'm a nerd). Then I came up with an idea for a Doctor Who/Torchwood fic, so I procrastinated even more. And then school got canceled today, so I decided to finish this.

Soooo I hope you guys enjoy, despite the crappy writing :)

P.S. I really appreciate all of the reviews and favorites! They make me smile!

* * *

They spent the next morning getting everything ready. It had been decided that Michele and Caterina would be going with Rick and his "fighting" group while Gabriele and Allison stayed in the field with the others. They didn't want to risk any more people than they had to, and Gabriele had seemed more than willing to stay behind and help from the sidelines. Those who would be going with Rick made sure that they had everything they would need for the push. There was no telling how many walkers there were behind that fence, so they needed to be ready.

"Here," Caterina muttered as she held out her beloved crossbow to her brother.

Gabriele took it hesitantly, unsure. Ever since he had been reunited with his little sister, he'd noticed that she rarely ever let her crossbow out of her sight. While he was sure that she felt safer now with this bigger group than she had when it was just the four of them, he was still fairly surprised that she would let go of it so readily now.

"See if you can't cover us with it," she continued when she realized the reason behind Gabriele's obvious confusion. "Might make things go a bit more smoothly."

He nodded. "Capisco."

"Let's get this show on the road," Rick called from where he stood by gate leading into the courtyard with his people. Caterina exchanged a look with her brother before the two of them went to join everyone by the gate.

While the group that would be pushing in made their last minute checks, Gabriele gathered everyone else on the other side of the tower. They would be doing what they could to keep the group from being overrun while they were inside, just as they did yesterday when Gabriele and Rick had made their run through the field. Edgar was to stay with them again as well. The Millers knew that he would be relatively safe if he went with them, but Rick and the others weren't too comfortable with the idea. They didn't know the training that Edgar had been put through. So they agreed to keep Edgar on the sidelines for now.

"We ready?" Rick asked.

When everyone nodded, he motioned to Gabriele, who stood at the end of the gate, and removed the link that had been keeping it closed. As soon as he did, Gabriele jerked the gate open and they stepped through in to the courtyard. The few walkers closest to the gate turned on them immediately. As Caterina and T-Dog moved to take care of them, Gabriele slid the gate closed again.

Once the walkers nearest the gate had fallen, the group inside the courtyard fell into a closed formation. While everyone had been gathering everything up, Rick and Michele had spent the morning trying to decide the best plan of action. It had been decided just a few hours ago that, during their push, they would keep as close together as possible. Not only would it prevent any one of them from being overrun, but it would prevent them from having any blind spots. The only time that any of them were to be permitted to break out of the formation was during a take down. Other than that, they were to stay as close together as possible.

So far, they'd been doing relatively well like that. But then Caterina saw T-Dog starting to break away.

"Don't break rank!" Rick snapped, apparently having noticed him moving away as well.

"We need that!" T-Dog argued as he ran over to fallen corpse.

As soon as Caterina realized what it was that he thought they needed, she stepped out of formation to give him some back up. While he grabbed the riot shield that laid in the corpse's hand, Caterina kept a look out for walkers. And it was lucky that she had, since one of the nearby walkers went after them as soon as they broke rank. Caterina raised the survival series parang in her hand and stepped forward to meet it, bringing it down on the walker's head easily.

T-Dog snatched up the shield, and he and Caterina quickly fell back into formation.

"Almost there," Rick muttered as they pushed further in.

The group approached one of the side entrances in the middle of the courtyard. They had taken out all the walkers out front, so they seemed to be in the clear, for now. But everyone still stood on edge as Rick opened the door, half expecting a walker to come barreling out. When nothing did come out, they turned their attention on the other side of the entrance. And, as luck would have it, there was another fenced courtyard there filled almost to the brim with walkers.

They quickly pressed themselves against the wall before they were spotted.

Caterina exchanged a look with Rick, the two of them trying to come up with a course of action. But any plans they would've been able to come up with were crushed before they were even formed as a pair of walkers dressed in riot uniforms came walking into sight from the other end of the courtyard, helmets and all. Daryl stepped forward with his crossbow raised, ready to fire at the pair, but Caterina reached out and placed her hand on his arm before he had a chance. He sent her a questioning look, and she just shook her head. An arrow wouldn't do any good against these particular walkers. The visors on their helmets would prevent them from being taken down from a distance. The only way that they would be killed was if someone went in close and stabbed them where they didn't have any protection.

She looked over to her father. He met her gaze instantly and nodded. Not surprisingly, he'd already realized the same thing.

Before Rick or any of the others could try to stop them, Caterina and Michele took off towards the riot walkers. While Michele grabbed one walker by the shoulder and stabbed the blade of his Hoodlum knife up until the walker's jaw, Caterina pinned the other to a nearby dumpster with her forearm. It struggled against her hold, trying to reach out and grab hold of her. Before it could get a good grip, she snatched her own knife from her waist and rammed it up into the base of the walker's skull. The walker went limp, and she stepped back to allow it to fall into a heap at her feet.

Caterina only allowed herself a quick moment to be pleased with her own work before she turned to where the others were. Two more walkers dressed up in riot gear had come out of the woodwork, and the others were fending them off. Apparently, they hadn't realized yet how to take them out. Instead, they were hacking away at the helmets, hoping that it might somehow damage the brain enough to kill the walkers.

Before Caterina could go help, she noticed that the walkers in the other courtyard had taken notice to them.

"Help me close the gate!" she shouted to her father.

Michele nodded and followed his daughter to the fence. He worked on taking care of the few walkers that had stumbled out of the courtyard while Caterina grabbed the gate and started dragging it closed. Once all but the two riot walkers had fallen, Michele hurried to help her keep the gate closed.

"Rick! Handcuffs!"

Rick didn't hesitate for even a second before he reached down for the pair of handcuffs that he kept tucked into his waistband. He tossed them to Caterina, who made quick work of opening the cuffs so that she could use them to link the gate closed while her father held it in place.

By the time that danger had been averted, the two Millers looked up to find that another walker had joined the two remaining riot walkers. This one was wearing a gas mask, so its head was left defenseless. Not only would it be easy to deal with, but they didn't have to worry about getting bitten by it, since the mask prevented it from being able to bite down on anything.

Caterina twirled her parang around her hand expertly as she and Michele stepped forward to help dispatch the remaining walkers. Michele went to help with the two riot walkers while Caterina approached the gas mask walker. Its attention had been turned on Daryl, who for some reason hadn't tried to go for the head yet. As it staggered towards him, Caterina crept up behind it. She swung her parang down into the walker's head, stilling it immediately. She pressed her foot into the walker's back and pushed her leg out slightly at the same time that she pulled the parang back. Once the blade was free, the body fell forward on to the ground. Daryl stared down at it for a moment before looking up at Caterina. He nodded to her in thanks, a slight smirk on his lips. She just blinked at him owlishly, not sure what he was smirking at.

She turned her attention away from Daryl as she heard two more thuds behind her, indicating that the riot walkers had been taken down as well.

For a moment, everyone just stood where they were in silence, catching their breath as they wounded down.

"Well, that was invigorating," Michele commented, slightly out of breath.

The others smiled slightly.

Everyone walked back out into the open, staring around at the newly emptied courtyard. Glenn and Maggie started towards the gate where the others were waiting for them rather anxiously.

"Stop," Rick called before they got too far.

The two stopped to turn back and look at the others, confused. Everyone but T-Dog was staring around, as if they were expecting more walkers to jump out and start attacking them.

"Well, it looks secure," Glenn pointed out.

"Not from the look of that courtyard over there," Daryl disagreed. He then motioned to the body of a young woman lying a few feet away from them. It had been one of the walkers that they had taken out when they first started to push through. "And that's a civilian," Daryl observed.

"So the interior could be overrun with walkers from outside the prison," T-Dog realized.

"Which would mean that there must be some sort of breach inside," Michele explained, "a hole in the walls that walkers from the outside are able to get through."

"If that's true, what're we gonna do?" Glenn asked. "We can't rebuild this whole place."

"We can't risk a blind spot," Rick said as he turned to a caged set of stairs to their right. "We have to push in."

While the others followed him, Caterina paused to motion to the others to stay put and wait before she fell into line behind T-Dog so that she was bringing up the rear.

The group gathered together at the porch step and waited as Daryl opened the door. Rick jumped inside as soon as it was open, ready to take down any walkers that stood in the way. But there wasn't anything there. He nodded the all clear, and the rest of the group filed in behind him. Caterina closed the outside door behind her once she was through while Rick opened another door leading into a sitting area. It was empty, apart from all the trash that had been left behind. And Caterina could see a corpse sitting up in the watch area—the eagle's nest, her father called it. She couldn't tell from where she stood if it was truly dead or if it was a walker, just sitting there with nothing to do.

Rick motioned for the others to check the area, to see if it was as abandoned as it seemed.

While they went to do as he said, Caterina caught Rick's eye and jerked her chin up to the eagle's nest, silently asking for back up while she went to check out the corpse. He nodded, and she started making her way up the stairs, with Rick following at her heel. She paused up at the entrance to glance back down at Rick before she stepped through into the nest, her knife raised in front of her in case the corpse got up to attack her. She relaxed when she saw all the blood and brain matter splattered on the glass behind it.

She glanced over the corpse, pausing when she spotted the ring of keys looped on its belt. She removed the keys and tossed them over her shoulder to Rick, who had followed her into the nest. He nodded in thanks.

They walked back down to the sitting area, and everyone walked over to where Daryl was standing by the entrance to the cell block. The others stood back while Rick went through the keys, trying to find the one that would open the door. Finally, he found it, and they filed inside. They went by each cell, searching for walkers hiding in the shadows. All that they found were more inmate bodies that had already been shot through the head.

Once they cleared the first floor of cells, Daryl and Caterina made their way up to the second landing. As they stepped out on to the walkway, there was a loud clanging from the far end. They exchanged quick looks and started making their way towards the noise. At the last two cells, they were forced to step back into the railing as a couple of walkers reached through the bars for them. Daryl nodded for Caterina to take out the first one. She rolled her eyes, but she flipped her knife in her hand so that the blade was sticking from the bottom of her fist. She grabbed the first walker by its arm and stabbed it in the head while Daryl took out the second.

* * *

While Glenn and Maggie were out gathering the others to bring them into the cell block, and the men were clearing the bodies out of the cells, Caterina went back up to the nest to see if she couldn't find a map of the prison. Hopefully, it would help them find the infirmary and mess hall tomorrow, as well as the armory off site. If Rick decided that they needed to clear out more of the prison, they would need as many weapons as they could get.

"What do you think?" she heard Rick asked from inside of the cell block.

"Home sweet home," Glenn replied.

"For the time being."

"It's secure?" Carol asked.

"This cell block is," Rick assured her.

"What about the rest of the prison?" Hershel wondered.

"In the morning, we'll find the cafeteria and infirmary."

"We sleep in the cells?" Beth asked.

"Cat found some keys on a guard. Daryl has a set too."

"I ain't sleepin' in no cage," Daryl's voice echoed from further inside. "I'll take the perch."

It became silent again, and Caterina guessed that the others had spread out to choose their cells.

She glanced down into the sitting area below her as Rick came walking out of the cell block. When he caught her eye, he paused, a hesitant look on his face. There was something else there as well, that guilt that she had noticed when they were reunited on the side of that road. He looked down at his hands as he seemed to gather his courage and started for the stairs that led up to the nest. Caterina watched him, trying to decide whether she was looking forward to this conversation or not. She had a bad feeling, but she had no idea why.

"You find anything?" he asked once he was standing at the entrance.

"Nothing but files," she replied as she looked around the nest. "But there's a lot of papers scattered around in here. I suspect that I'll find a map buried underneath it all."

Rick nodded and fell silent, just watching from the door frame while Caterina returned to rifling through the mess of papers. The entire time, she could feel his stare on the back of her head; the intensity of it caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up.

"You know, if you've got something to say about that night, you can say it."

He huffed silently. "Still as sharp as ever."

"Did you honestly expect anything else?

"No, I suppose not."

He fell silent again, and Caterina finally stopped looking to turn to him. He was staring down at the ring of keys in his hands, fiddling with it. He still had that guilty look on his face.

She stared at him, expecting him to say something. But he didn't.

She sighed. "I don't blame you for leaving the highway, Rick," she assured him, figuring that was why he felt guilty. "A herd of walkers had just passed through. There were probably still some stragglers walking about. It wouldn't have been safer for you to stay and wait for me."

"No, I know. We had to leave."

She waited again, but he still didn't say anything. "Then why do you look so guilty?"

He finally looked up from the keys, meeting her gaze only to look away again after a few seconds. She frowned slightly.

"Everyone was certain that you were dead," he muttered.

"Yeah, I know. Daryl told me about how you find my tags."

He nodded. "That was pretty much what solidified it for 'em."

Caterina's frown deepened. He kept saying "them" and not "us," and it made her anxious.

"About a week after that, Daryl and I were out huntin' and we had to separate to get the angle on some rabbits in their hole. And I stumbled on a few corpses with some makeshift arrows in their heads."

Her stomach plummeted as she realized what he was getting at.

"I didn't realize who they belonged to until I saw the initials carved into 'em: CM." He paused, but Caterina was too engrossed in his story to stop him or walk away, even though she really didn't want to hear what he was going to say. "I thought about tellin' the others, pickin' back up on our search, go back to leavin' behind a trail for you to follow… But I didn't. When you were gone, it took a toll on the others. It was like there was this…cloud hangin' over everyone's head. And then, when we found that body with your tags…they were still depressed, but it was like a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. They were finally able to move on from you."

He chanced a look at Caterina's face and almost flinched when he saw her blank mask. He took a step forward so that he was standing inside of the nest with her only to freeze when she took an automatic step back. He don't move any further, but he looked hurt. It almost made her blood boil.

"If I'd told 'em you were still alive, it would've just brought back that pain," he went on, almost begging for her to understand. "I couldn't do that to them. I-I couldn't do that to Lori, or Carl, or Daryl, or any of 'em."

Caterina nodded mechanically. "I understand. You did what you thought was best for the group."

Rick swallowed at the monotone in her voice. He opened his mouth again, possibly to ask for forgiveness, but Caterina turned away before he could say anything more and continued her search through the papers scattered around the nest, a silent signal to the end of their conversation.

He stayed in the nest for a moment, staring at her back, before he finally left. But not before saying one last thing.

"I'm sorry, Cat…"

He walked back down the stairs to the ground floor.

Caterina watched from the corner of her eye as he disappeared into the cell block. As soon as he was out of sight, she stopped in her search to brace her hands on the corner of the desk in front of her and allowed her head to fall beneath her shoulders. She did understand why he hadn't said anything to the others. If they had been as affected by her absence as he said, then telling them that she was still alive after being on her own for four months wouldn't have done much good. If anything, it would've made them feel even worse. But that didn't keep her from feeling the betrayal. She had come to view Rick as family, like an older brother. He'd been her best friend. And she had thought that he would be the last person to give up on her. But, as it turned out, he ended up being the first.

She was quick to collect herself. She needed to find that map before any more people came looking for her. She hadn't exactly been in the mood for conversation before, but now she was even more reluctant to talk to anyone.

It took her a few minutes, but she finally found the prison map buried underneath the papers, just as she had said it would be.

"Cat?"

She jumped at the sudden voice and turned to the doorway where her father stood, a slight frown on his face. She placed her hand over her thudding heart. "Jesus! You scared the shit out of me."

"Perdonami. I did not mean to frighten you."

Caterina folded up the map and stuffed it into her back pocket. While she did, Michele just stared at her thoughtfully.

"Are you all right, micio?"

"I'm fine."

He stared at her a moment longer before nodding, deciding not to push it further, although it was obvious to him that she was lying. He knew his daughter, and she wasn't the type to spill her thoughts easily. "The others are turning in for the night," he informed her instead. "You should do the same."

"All right, I'll be there in a minute."

"Bene. Gabriele and I set up a space for you in the last cell on the first floor."

"Okay. Thanks."

Michele nodded, but he didn't move. He just continued to stare at her. Finally, he smiled and turned to leave.

Caterina sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before she followed her father into the cell block. He disappeared into one of the first cells at the front of the cell block, which she noticed that he shared with Gabriele and Allison. She nodded to them before continuing towards the back.

Rick was making one last sweep of the area. He paused to stare at Caterina as she walked past, but she refused to look at him. When she passed by him, she heard him sigh before walking to the far wall.

She could see Daryl lying on the perch at the top of the stairs. He looked down at her as she reached the bottom and met her gaze. She gave him a small smile before passing under the stairs.

She walked into the last cell, where her father and brother had put her supplies. She sat down on the bed and stared at her surroundings, taking in the dark blood splattered on the floor sand walls. She sighed lightly and laid down on the bed, closing her eyes only to open them again a second later when she heard the pitter-patter of clawed feet moving towards her cell. She looked over at the opening just as Edgar appeared there. He walked into the cell and leapt up on to the end of her mattress. He walked around to her side and forced himself into the space between her and the wall so that he was lying straight, but he turned his head so that it was resting on her stomach. She placed her hand on his head and rubbed his ears lightly. He closed his eyes at the feeling and was soon fast asleep.

* * *

After staring up at the bed above her for a few hours, Caterina realized that she wasn't going to be getting very much sleep that night. So she picked up Edgar, who had moved sometime in the last hour so that he was lying on top of her and placed him on the bed where she'd been lying. He whined sleepily at the movement but curled up on the bed and was back asleep in seconds. She rolled her eyes at how easy it was for him to fall asleep.

She pulled the map of the prison out of her pocket and opened it up in her lap. If she wasn't going to sleep, then she could study the map so that they didn't have to worry about one of them having their nose buried in it while they were looking for the mess hall tomorrow.

Caterina spent only an hour or so looking over the map when she heard shuffling footsteps moving towards her cell. For a moment, she worried that it was a walker, that they had somehow overlooked one and it was coming for her because her cell was the only one open. But then she realized that she was being ridiculous. They had checked every corner. There was no way that they would've missed any. So she shook the paranoia from her thoughts before they could get away from her.

A familiar head of strawberry blonde hair poked into her cell. "Hey. Couldn't sleep?"

"Looks like you couldn't either."

Allison shrugged as she stepped into the doorway. "You know how much trouble I have sleeping in unfamiliar areas." She walked into the cell and sat down on the edge of the mattress next to Caterina, close enough that their sides were touching slightly. Allison had never really given much leave to personal space. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Caterina rolled her eyes. "Did padre send you to talk to me?"

"No, he actually told us to leave you alone. Whatever he thought was wrong with you, I guess he felt that you should deal with it on your own." She grinned cheekily. "But you know how much I like to meddle."

She nodded. Allison did have a thing with demanding that people talk about their feelings.

"So what did Rick say?" Allison wondered.

"What makes you think he said anything?" she retorted offhandedly.

"Well, dad saw him go up to talk to you and, when he came back down, he looked really upset about something. And then dad went to check on you a while later and came back saying that you were angry about something."

"I wasn't angry."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"Not really," she muttered. "What Rick said was spoken in confidence, and I'm not about to talk about it."

Allison nodded slowly, obviously not convinced. She was able to see the hidden dismay in her eyes. But she knew better than to press matters when it was obvious that Caterina was determined not to say anything on something. "Okay," she relented. "Then let's talk about something else."

"Like what?"

"How about we talk about Daryl?"

Caterina stared at her blankly for a moment before turning back to the map in her hands. "Good night, Allison," she dismissed her.

"Oh, come on!" she pleaded. "It's obvious you two have feelings for each other! And Lori and Carol said that you two were in some kind of a relationship before you got separated, that it was serious."

"We weren't in a relationship," she mumbled.

"Then what were you two?"

"We weren't anything. It just a…thing."

"Uh-huh," she muttered, unconvinced. "Did you two kiss while you were having this…thing?"

"Occasionally," she admitted. There was no reason denying it if Allison had spoken to Lori and Carol. She was sure they'd had a nice long chat about her and Daryl's supposed "relationship." There had been times back at the farm that she felt like those two were more concerned with her relationship with Daryl than either of them were.

"You two were so dating!" Allison decided, sounding like she had just made the biggest discovery in the world.

"I don't date," Caterina reminded her. "Neither does Daryl."

"Then it was casual?"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Do you love him?"

Caterina waved a hand at her dismissively. She wasn't about to get into this with her, especially not with Daryl sleeping close by. "If you want to talk about people's relationships, wait until morning and talk to the other girls. I don't do gossip."

"Oh come on!" Allison pleaded, grabbing her by the arm and shaking her. "Just tell me! I promise I won't say anything to anyone, not even Gabriele."

She sighed heavily. Allison was obviously determined to talk about this, and there was no deterring her when she was determined about something. "Yes," she confessed after a long moment, although she was still hesitant to give up that bit of information.

Allison squealed excitedly. "That's so sweet! Are you going to tell him?"

"Hell no," she replied immediately.

"Why not?" she whined.

"Because it doesn't matter."

Allison rolled her eyes. "Are you sure you don't wanna tell him because you think you'll be rejected?"

Caterina didn't say anything.

"I know I don't know these people as well as you do, but I don't think Daryl would reject your feelings. He might feel awkward about it, but he wouldn't reject you. In fact, I'd go so far to say that he might feel the same way."

She just looked over at her from the corner of her eye, a blank look on her face.

Allison raised her hands defensively. "Okay, fine. I can see I'm not going to convince you." She stood up. "But you should still tell him how you feel. You'll only regret it later if something happens to either of you."

With that, she gave a slight wave and left the cell.

Caterina stared after her, her lips turned down in a thoughtful frown.

* * *

**Vocabulary**

Capisco—Understood

Perdonami—Forgive me

Micio—cat/kitty


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note**

Once again, I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this out :( I've been too busy with school to write. But I was determined to get this out today (and by gosh I made the deadline, by seven minutes!), so I apologize again for the crappy writing. It really gets bad towards the end, because my mind just wasn't in the right set today. But I hope you enjoy it despite all that! And I promise to have the next chapter up by this upcoming Sunday at the latest!

* * *

In the end, Edgar was the only one in Caterina's cell who got any sleep. After Alison left, Caterina spent a few more hours poring over the prison map before she took to doing as many workouts as she could in the confined space. She kept at it well into the morning, when she started to hear the others waking up. She listened to them bustling about their new home, getting everything ready for whatever they would be doing that day.

Usually, Caterina would have gone out to help, but she still wasn't in the mood to talk after hearing what Rick had to say last night. Instead, she decided to cherish her time to herself before someone was sent to fetch her for the day's mission.

When she'd finally had her fill of exercise, Caterina had barely worked up a sweat. There was no telling what they would be facing when they went looking for the mess hall, and she didn't want to push herself when there was a chance that they would be faced with more obstacles like yesterday. So she pulled herself up from the floor and grabbed a black, button-up shirt from her backpack.

She had only managed to get her arms through the short sleeves when she heard someone approaching her cell. She turned to the opening at the same time that Daryl stepped into view.

He opened his mouth to say something, but his throat seemed to close around the words as he realized that Caterina was standing in front of him with her shirt open, revealing the white sports bra beneath it. The corners of her lips twitched as blood immediately started pooling into Daryl's cheeks.

"Sorry…" he grumbled, turning his head away.

"It's fine. Not like you haven't seen me in less."

Daryl looked at her from the corner of his eye, apparently remembering that day back at the CDC, when he stumbled into her room while she was taking a shower.

Caterina gave an amused huff as she started buttoning her shirt. She assumed that the only reason that Daryl was there now was because the others had sent him to fetch her, meaning that they were getting ready to head out.

If she were honest, she didn't want to go on this mission anymore, not after yesterday, not after her conversation with Rick. While she had decided last night that she would forget about what he said, she wasn't going to forgive him. She had trusted him to be there for her, probably more than anybody else in the group (excluding Daryl, of course), and he betrayed her. Eight months ago, she might have been willing to forgive him. After all, she really did understand why he had done what he did. But she wasn't the same person that she was eight months ago. Although she had improved greatly over the past few months from that basic state that she had been reduced to, she still hadn't completely returned to her old self, and every day she started to believe more and more that she never would. Which meant that she would no longer be that moral woman who fought for Randall's life so many months ago.

"Cat?"

Her gaze snapped up to Daryl, who had adopted a slightly worried tone. He was staring at her fully now, his brow furrowed in accompaniment with his usual scowl.

"Yes?" Caterina asked, apologetic as she realized that she must've zoned out.

"I asked if you got any sleep last night," he repeated.

"A few hours, yes," she lied automatically. When he just raised his brow disbelieving, she reminded herself that it was pointless to lie to him. As odd as it was, Daryl seemed able to pick up on her lies more easily than her family. "I don't usually get much sleep nowadays," she amended.

Daryl nodded, seeming to understand what she was saying.

He remained standing in the opening while Caterina gathered her weapons. She had decided while she was working out that, in addition to her crossbow, she was going to bring her Beretta 92fs and Lightning Bolt throwing knives. She had found them a few months into her isolation and had become pretty adept with them. She was able to nail a walker between the eyes from the other side of a decently sized living room.

Once she had everything ready, she followed Daryl out to where the others were gathered. She noticed that Glenn, Maggie, Hershel, and T-Dog were getting into riot armor. She guessed that they'd gone out to take them off of the dead guards that they took out yesterday. Whosever idea it was, it was smart. The padding covered a lot of vulnerable areas on the body, so it would be harder for walkers to bite them.

Rick looked up from helping T-Dog into his chest armor as Daryl and Caterina approached. "Good mornin'," he greeted with a cautious undertone. He was obviously worried that she would still be upset about what he said yesterday.

"Morning," Caterina replied casually.

He let his eyes roll over her face, and he frowned slightly as his gaze settled under her eyes, where she was sure there were dark bags from lack of sleep. "Alison told me you didn't get much sleep last night," he told her. "If you wanna stay behind and rest, no one'll hold it against you."

She glanced back over her shoulder towards her family's cell and spotted Alison poking her blonde head out of the opening. As soon as she spotted her looking, Alison squealed and ducked back into the cell. She knew how upset Caterina would be if she spoke about her behind her back, but she had felt the need to let the rest of the group know about her sleeping troubles.

Caterina rolled her eyes as she turned back to Rick. "I'm fine," she assured him. "I never sleep well the first night in a new area."

Rick stared at her, clearly not quite believing her. But he seemed to decide against calling her out on it. "Did you manage to find a map?" he asked instead.

"Yeah, I spent a few hours last night studying it. I should be able to lead us to the mess hall."

"Good. Then you're runnin' point with Daryl."

Caterina nodded in understanding before brushing past Rick to join his son, Beth, and Carol at one of the tables in the sitting area, where there was more riot supplies set up. The group had apparently managed to scrounge up some flashbangs and triple chasers, as well as a few batons and helmets. Carl grabbed one of the helmets and slipped it on to his head, replacing his father's hat. The helmet was much too big for him, the brim falling forward over his eyes. He tilted his head forward and let the helmet fall into his hands. He smiled across the table at Caterina and Beth, who smiled back in amusement.

"You won't need that," Rick spoke up as he stepped out of the cell, taking the helmet from Carl. "I need you to stay put."

"You're kidding," Carl gaped at him.

"We don't know what's in there. If somethin' goes wrong, you could be the last man standin'. I need you to handle things here," he assured him, trying to play up the importance of him staying behind.

It obviously worked, as Carl's chest seemed to swell with pride and he nodded in understanding. "Sure."

He smiled slightly, obviously amused by his son's need to be helpful. "Great." He handed the ring of keys to Carl before turning to Michele and Gabriele, who were both standing outside of their shared cell. "You comin'?" he asked.

Michele stepped forward slightly. "Actually, I think it would be best if we stayed behind as well," he said. "It would be unwise for too many of us to wander these halls when we do not know how things will go." He nodded back to the cell where Alison was. "Besides, Alison is not feeling well. While we do not distrust any of you, I think it would be better if Gabriele and I were to watch over her ourselves."

Rick nodded. "I understand." He turned to those who would be going with him. "Let's go."

The group started filing out of the cell block, Maggie pausing to say goodbye to Beth and Rick to glance up at where Lori stood on the second landing. As soon as they had passed into the sitting area and Carol and Beth had returned to the cell block, Carl closed the door and locked it.

Caterina and Daryl led the way to another barred door on the wall to the right of the nest. Daryl reached through the bars and used his keys to unlock it. Once he had it, he opened the door as quietly as possible, in case there were any walkers waiting somewhere on the other side, and everyone hurried through.

Caterina went down to one end of the hall and paused at the corner, waiting for Daryl to catch up. When he was back at her side, the two jumped out into the next hall without even having to pause to communicate to one another, their crossbows raised. Rick stepped out behind them, shining his flashlight down the hall. When they saw that it was empty, they continued to make their way through the halls, Caterina leading the way while mentally going over her map.

She stepped out into another hall where there were more, open cell doors and mostly eaten corpses on the ground. Water was dripping somewhere from the ceiling, the sound echoing along with their light footsteps. Glenn paused to spray a white arrow on the wall pointing toward the hall that they had just come down. Apparently, the group had decided to leave these behind in case anyone got separated or lost, so they could find their way back to the cell block. While Caterina thought that it was a great idea, she worried about any living humans who somehow got into the prison. If strangers saw their arrows and decided to follow them, the group would be in danger.

Caterina passed into one of the cells, a few of the others following her example and clearing them. They didn't want any unseen walkers coming up behind them.

After clearing her second cell, Caterina stepped back out into the hall only to freeze as Maggie let out a quiet shriek. She spun around, crossbow raised, expecting to see her being attacked by a walker. She was both relieved and somewhat amused when all that she saw was Glenn standing in front of the country girl, rubbing her arms soothingly while she tried to calm herself down.

"Sorry," Glenn muttered to everyone.

Caterina and Daryl exchanged amused looks before they continued on.

The group passed through an already open door at the end of the hall. Glenn paused to spray a new arrow on the wall while Caterina led the rest down the new hall. They turned yet another corner, and Glenn sprayed another arrow. He had barely finished when there was a loud thud coming from an adjacent hall. Caterina and Rick exchanged looks before the two started moving towards the sound, the others following anxiously. Caterina motioned for the rest of the group to wait while she and Rick went to the corner. They paused at the end of the wall, neither willing to step out into the hall in case there was anything waiting there for them. Rick moved so that he was standing closest to the end, and he peaked around the corner, shining his light down the hall.

He pulled back immediately. "Go back," he whispered hurriedly. "Go back! Move! Walkers!"

They quickly retreated back down the hall.

"This way!" Caterina called as she quickly went through the map in her head, trying to find a place for them to hide. She led the way down another hall towards where she knew there to be a set of double doors that would lead into a closed off part of the prison.

Once she reached the doors, she grabbed them and threw them open, allowing the others to go through first. She paused when she realized that they were missing two members of the group: Glenn and Maggie. But the sound of the feral growls growing closer pushed that to the back of her head, and she hurried through the doors to join the others. She let the doors close quietly behind her before she ducked her head beneath the square window to keep herself from being seen. After a moment, she peeked through it to check if the walkers had seen where they disappeared too. Luckily, they hadn't spotted them.

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" Rick whispered.

"We have to go back," Hershel said just as quietly.

"But which way?" Daryl asked.

No one said anything. As horrible as it seemed, none of them had been paying much attention to the rest of the group while they had been running. They didn't know where they had gotten separated from Glenn and Maggie.

They waited until the walkers had passed by before they went back out into the hall. Caterina led the way as they retraced their steps from where they had run into the walkers. There had been a few smaller cells that they had passed along the way to the area that they had hid in. Maybe Glenn and Maggie had ducked into one of them.

"Maggie? Glenn?" Hershel called out in a whisper.

There was a moment of silence as Caterina continued to lead the way through the halls, and she paused. She had expected Hershel to keep calling out to his daughter and Glenn, or to hear Glenn or Maggie calling back, but she couldn't hear anything. And before she could start to register the uneasiness that the silence caused, there was a familiar yell from a branching hallway behind them.

"Hershel!" she shouted worriedly.

The rest of the group hurried back to the hall that they had heard the scream from. As soon as they passed the corner, they saw Hershel on the ground on his stomach with a walker biting into his calf. He was breathing heavily and screaming in shock and pain.

"No!" Rick shouted. He pulled out his Python and fired at the walker, killing it.

At the same instance, Maggie and Glenn came running around one of the corners halfway down the hallway.

As soon as she saw her father on the ground, Maggie started wailing. "No!"

"Maggie!" Hershel gasped.

"Daddy!"

Caterina and Rick grabbed Hershel by the arms and pulled him to his feet. She could her walkers approaching from the end of the hall and, soon enough, they passed into view.

"Daryl!" Rick called.

Daryl stepped out in front of them obediently, aiming his crossbow at the oncoming walkers. He fired a single arrow into one in the front while the rest of the group took off to the other end of the hallway, Caterina and Rick supporting Hershel between them. They were forced to a stop again after only a few steps as even more walkers came from the other end, having been drawn by the sound of Hershel's screams.

"We're blocked!" T-Dog shouted.

"This way!" Caterina called as she turned them back to the branching hall that Glenn and Maggie had come through.

As they staggered through the halls, Caterina hurriedly went through her mental map. She knew that the mess hall was close at this point, and probably the closest safe point. So she started leading them there and soon they had come to a set of double doors held closed with a pair of handcuffs. T-Dog pushed his way through to the front and used his fire poker to break the chain, opening the door. They pulled Hershel inside quickly, and Daryl and T-Dog stopped to close the doors behind them while Caterina and Rick set Hershel on the ground. He was still wailing in pain.

The walkers soon started banging against the doors, trying to force them open. Caterina quickly abandoned her place at Hershel's side to help Daryl and T-Dog keep the doors closed.

"You got it?" Rick asked. "Have you got it?"

"We've got it," Caterina assured him.

Daryl moved away from the doors and readied another arrow in his crossbow. Once he had, he hurried over to where the others were gathered around Hershel while T-Dog slid his fire poker through the handles to help keep it closed. Daryl took out one of his knives and used it to cut Hershel's pant leg so they could take a look at his calf. Bloody tendons were hanging from where the walker had bitten him, and it was positively gushing blood.

"Hold him down," Rick instructed.

Glenn and Maggie grabbed Hershel by the shoulders and held him to the floor while Rick took off his belt. He tied it over Hershel's knee as a makeshift tourniquet, and Caterina knew instantly what he meant to do.

"All right," he mumbled to the older man. "Only one way to keep you alive." He reached over and grabbed the hatchet from Hershel's weapon pack. Without waiting for his consent, he started hacking into Hershel's leg just below his knee. He tried to work quickly to remove the lower portion of Hershel's leg while the poor old man cried in pain. Then he suddenly stopped yelling and went stock still. Rick paused to look at his bloodied hands in pained disgust before bringing the hatchet down one last time, completely severing Hershel's lower leg. He brushed it aside before dropping the hatchet. "Oh!" he gasped, pacing to his feet before quickly kneeling back down. "He's bleedin' out."

Daryl glanced over at something behind Rick before turning his gaze partially to the ground. "Duck," he muttered.

Rick hesitated for a moment before diving to the ground. Glenn reached over and pushed Maggie down just before Daryl jumped to his feet, aiming his crossbow at the back of the room. Caterina followed his line of sight to a fenced window looking into the kitchen where a group of prisoners were standing—alive prisoners.

"Holy shit," one of the prisoners gaped.

Daryl walked around the others to get a closer look at the prisoners. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

"Who the hell are you?" the same prisoner threw back.

Rick glanced back at them before turning his attention back on Hershel, assuring himself that Daryl had things covered. Even if he didn't, he knew that Caterina would be quick to help him. Rick bundled up the ripped part of Hershel's pant leg and pressed it to the bleeding stump in an attempt to hopefully still the bleeding a bit. "He's bleedin' out. We gotta go back," he informed his people. He looked up to Glenn and Maggie. "Come 'round here. Put pressure on the knee."

Maggie hurried around to the other side of her father and took over putting pressure on the stump. Meanwhile, Glenn went to Hershel's bag and started rifling through it, searching for something that could hopefully help Hershel.

"Why don't you come on outta there?" Daryl instructed the prisoners, his crossbow still trained on them. "Slow and steady."

The five prisoners hesitated before they came out of the kitchen slowly, each of them obviously stunned. The first one to come out was a man of Spanish decent with shoulder length black hair and tanned skin. His gaze shifted from Daryl to the people gathered around Hershel as he came out, the rest of the prisoners filing behind him. Caterina noted that they seemed to keep close to the man, which meant that he must be the leader. She had learned from a friend of her father's that prisoners tended to form groups in which they had a leader who would keep them safe from the other prisoners, as long as they did as he said.

"What happened to him?" the leader asked.

"He got bit," Daryl replied.

"Bit?" he repeated somewhat fearfully. He pulled a Smith & Wesson Model 442 from the front of his pants.

As soon as he did, Caterina retrieved her Beretta from its holster at her hip and aimed it at his hand that held the revolver. "I suggest you drop the gun before you lose the use of your hand," she ordered somewhat coldly.

The man turned his gaze on her, and his eyes immediately trailed up and down her form. She tensed at the unwanted attention but didn't move, staring at the man with a detached look on her face. The corners of his lips turned up in a pleased smirk when he was finished assessing her, and he turned his gaze back to her face. "And who are you?" he asked in a slightly condescending tone.

"None of your business," Daryl snarled.

He looked between him and Caterina, pausing to take in Daryl's appearance properly (to take in his suddenly possessive stance), and a look of understanding flashed over his face. "Seriously? You and him?" he scoffed. He turned his gaze back on Caterina. "C'mon, you could do better than that."

Caterina could feel Daryl bristling from where she stood by the door, and she couldn't help the smirk that came to her lips. "If you don't think _he's_ worth my time, what makes you think you would have a chance?" she bit back, never taking her eyes off of the Hispanic.

The man straightened at the insult. "Trust me, sweetie. If you had me, you'd never want anyone else."

"You're pretty confident for someone who looks like he suffers from erectile dysfunction," Caterina observed with a sickly sweet tone. The man's eyes narrowed at the insult, and he turned his gun on her. Her smirk widened at the action. "I've seen what guys like you have to offer, and I think I'll stick with my redneck, thanks," she went on, deciding to burn him a little more.

A few of the prisoners had to stifle laughs while the leader glowered at her.

"You better watch what you say, bitch," the man spat angrily.

"Easy, tiger," Daryl interrupted when Caterina made to respond. She glanced over at him at the nickname, a small smile on her lips. Tiger had been Daryl's secret pet name for her back at the farm. He usually only used it when he was flirting, so she was a little surprised that he had just used it. But she supposed it was his way of repaying her for her comment earlier.

During the confrontation between Caterina and the prison leader, Rick had taken a rag from his pocket and was using it to wrap Hershel's stump in an attempt to help still the blood flow.

"I need you to hold this," Rick instructed. "As hard as you can."

Maggie nodded in understanding and did as he said.

Glenn stood up from his place next to Hershel's bag. "You have medical supplies?" he asked the prisoners. He walked straight into the kitchen without waiting for a response. The leader trained the barrel of his revolver on him as he passed before turning it back on Caterina, his glare still in place.

"Whoa, where do you think you're goin'?" a large black man asked, but he was ignored.

"Who the hell are you people anyway?" the leader asked.

"Don't look like no rescue team," the only white prisoner added.

Rick was heaving Hershel up so that his torso was up off the ground while Maggie kept his stump tied as tightly as possible. "If a rescue team's what you're waitin' for, don't," he scoffed. When Glenn came out of the kitchen with a service cart, Rick nodded to the rest of their group. "C'mon, we gotta go. Now!" he instructed as he put one of Hershel's arms around his shoulders. "I need a hand here!"

Glenn parked the cart next to them before moving to grab Hershel's other arm and throwing it up over his own shoulder. Maggie had to remove the rag and step back while he and Rick heaved Hershel up and laid him down on the cart. As soon as he was on, Maggie returned to her job of putting pressure on the leg.

"Holy Jesus!" the white prisoner gasped.

"T, the door!" Rick called.

"Are you crazy? Don't open that!"

"We got this!" T-Dog assured him before he removed the fire poker from the handles. The doors were thrown open immediately, and another riot walker stumbled in. It looked like the others had grown bored and left, leaving this walker by himself. T-Dog pinned the walker to the other door and held it in place so that he could adjust his grip on the poker and stab it up into the walker's jaw.

While he took out the walker, the others rolled Hershel out of the mess hall.

"Daryl! Cat!" Rick called over his shoulder.

Daryl started backing up to the door where Caterina stood, both of their weapons still trained on the prisoners while the prison leader kept his revolver trained on them in return. Once Daryl was at her side, he reached out and grabbed Caterina by the arm, urging her back out of the mess hall. Caterina kept her pistol trained on the prisoners until they had passed through the doors.


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note**

I'm so sorry, guys! This is a day late because my great-grandfather had heart surgery, and my grandmother ended up coming to stay with my mom, and my mom wanted me to stay and keep her company as well as distract grandma's dog while she was working, and you guys already know that I don't have a computer over there so I wasn't able to write anything. Which explains why this chapter might seem hurried. I've had it planned out for a while. It just needed a few finishing touches, but it still sounds rushed to me. But I hope you guys enjoy it regardless! I should have the next chapter done Wednesday, if not later today.

* * *

They pushed Hershel through the halls, Glenn up at the front with his flashlight lighting the way while Caterina and Daryl held up the back, in case any walkers came up from behind. Glenn started leading the others to the left of another hall, but he was forced to a stop by Rick, who had spotted one of the arrows that Glenn had left earlier.

"This way! Go, go, go, go, go!"

A walker stepped out from around the corner ahead, blocking them off.

"Daryl!" Rick called.

Daryl raised his crossbow and fired an arrow into the walker's forehead, killing it. Once it had been taken down, Caterina took up the position of leader as she hurried down the corridor, with Daryl following right behind her after pausing to retrieve his crossbow.

"C'mon!" Caterina called back to the others.

She and Daryl paused to let the others roll Hershel out in front of them.

They continued through the halls as quickly as they could, trying to make their way back to the cell block where the others were waiting. After going a bit further, Rick glanced back past everyone.

"Stop!"

The others turned to see a group of shadows following them.

"Follow the flashlight," a voice spoke from the direction of the shadows. "C'mon, let's go."

The Hispanic prisoner stepped out into the hall where Caterina and her group were waiting, his gun raised. The other prisoners followed behind him closely.

Rick brushed them off for now, Hershel's condition taking precedent. "Let's go," he encouraged the others. "Go, go, go, go, go."

They continued to the cell block.

Soon enough, Daryl was opening the barred door that led into the sitting area. Once he had it unlocked, he opened the door and stepped aside to let the rest through first. Glenn and Rick rolled the cart through with Maggie, who had kept pressure on the leg the entire time.

"He's losin' too much blood!" Maggie informed the others.

"Get Alison!" Caterina called after them. "She's a nurse! She can help!"

Rick nodded as they continued to the door. "Open the door!" he shouted to the rest of their group. "It's Hershel! Carl, c'mon!"

"Oh my God!" they heard Carol gasp from inside the cell block.

"Daddy!" Beth cried out.

Carl hurriedly unlocked the door to their cell block and threw it open so that they could roll the cart inside. Once they disappeared inside, Daryl went up to the door and locked it behind them, leaving him, Caterina, and T-Dog out in the sitting area. While Hershel received treatment for his leg, they had to make sure that the prisoners that had been following them didn't get inside to the others.

Daryl tossed the keys to Caterina, who quickly looped them into one of her belt loops while Daryl re-armed his crossbow. Once the arrow was in place, he propped one leg up on the bench and aimed his crossbow at the door that they had come through. They hadn't bothered closing it, knowing that the prisoners weren't far behind.

"T-Dog, go behind the nest," Caterina instructed as she readied her Beretta. "We'll want the angle on these guys if the start anything we don't like."

"You go it," T-Dog replied before disappearing behind the nest as she said.

There was a moment of silence Daryl and Caterina trained their eyes and weapons on the entrance. They could hear the prisoners' echoing footsteps growing closer and closer, and the sound was putting them it somewhat on edge. But despite that, Caterina noticed Daryl sneaking glances at her from the corner of her eye. It was obvious that he wanted to say something, but he seemed reluctant to actually say it, whatever it was.

"What?" Caterina asked, deciding to take the initiative since he obviously wasn't going to.

"So I'm your redneck, huh?" Daryl replied as soon as she spoke.

She flushed at that. "Sorry," she muttered. "It just slipped out."

"I'm not complainin', just makin' sure."

She looked at him, an eyebrow raised. Daryl turned his head slightly to meet her gaze, and she saw the small smirk on his lips, similar to the one that he had worn the day before when he let her take down that gas mask walker for him. This time, instead of just confusing her, the smirk pulled more heat into her face and she turned away quickly. Now that there was more context to go along with it, she understood what the smirk went. She wasn't sure if she was more embarrassed or…excited.

Once again, the prison leader was the first to step through. He glanced at Daryl and Caterina warily before looking around the sitting area. The other prisoners came out with him.

"That's far enough," Daryl warned them.

But the prisoners didn't listen. They slowly continued to make their way towards the two, although they were smart enough not to move too close.

"Cell block C," the Hispanic said. "Cell Four—that's mine, gringo. Let me in."

"Today's your lucky day, fellas. You've been pardoned by the state of Georgia. You're free to go."

"What've you got goin' on in there?" the man asked.

"It ain't none of your concern."

The man pulled out his revolver threateningly. "Don't be tellin' me what's my concern," he barked.

Daryl stepped off of the table to train his crossbow more directly on the leader while Caterina raised her Beretta higher, aimed at the area between the man's eyes. She didn't bother much with the other prisoners. She knew prison groups were like chickens. Cut off the head and the body will flounder. If they took out the Hispanic, the rest wouldn't know what to do.

"Chill, man," the large black man tried to calm the Hispanic down. "Dude's leg is messed up. And besides, we're free now. Why're we still in here?"

"The man's got a point," Daryl said, never taking his eyes off of the leader.

"Yeah, and I gotta check on my old lady," the older black man agreed.

"A group of civilians breaking _in_ to a prison you got no business bein' in—got me thinkin' there ain't no place for us _to_ go," the leader said.

"Why don't you go find out?" Daryl suggested.

"Maybe we'll just be goin' now," the white prisoner tried, but it didn't seem that the leader would be having any of it.

"Hey, we ain't leavin.'"

At that point, T-Dog stepped out from under the stairs leading to the eagle's nest. He had his own handgun aimed on the leader. "You ain't comin' in either," he growled.

The leader turned his revolver on to him. "Hey, this is my house, my rules. I go where I damn well please."

He and Daryl argued back and forth after that, neither one willing to let up at all. Caterina and T-Dog just stood to the side, watching them. T-Dog was obviously uncomfortable, maybe somewhat anxious judging from how he kept shifting from one foot to the other. Caterina, on the other hand, was just annoyed. All of this arguing wasn't getting them anywhere, but she knew better than to go try to step between them. While Daryl would surely back down as soon as she said so, the leader was another story. She wouldn't put it past him to shoot her in the back, especially with how she'd humiliated him before.

Their voices ended up attracting attention from the others in the cell block. Edgar had been drawn to the noise specifically, and he stood by the door, growling at the prisoners. Eventually, the growling seemed to get to the others, and Rick came back out along with Michele to see what was going on while Carl closed the door and locked it behind them again, making sure that Edgar stayed in the cell block with him.

"There ain't nothin' for you here," Daryl was saying. "Why don't you go back to your sandbox?"

"What is all this ruckus about?" Michele asked as he and Rick came up between Daryl and Caterina.

"None of your business, old man," the prison leader snapped.

Caterina stepped forward threateningly. "Watch how you speak to my father, prick," she growled.

Michele raised his hand to silence his daughter, never taking his eyes off of the Hispanic. "It is all right, micio," he assured her calmly.

Caterina instantly stepped down, knowing that her father was about to put the man in his place.

Michele stepped forward, his arms crossed behind his back like the military man that he was. His expression was completely calm, but Caterina could see the tension in his shoulders. "What is your name, young man?" he demanded of the Hispanic.

"Tomas," he answered a little hesitantly.

"Well, Tomas," he said, "I do not know where you are from, but in my country we are taught to respect our elders. But since you are obviously not Italiano, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. But, from here on out, you will address me as sir or Sergeant. Is that understood?" he asked in that demanding tone of his.

Tomas' jaw clenched angrily at being told what to do, but he seemed to realize that it wouldn't be very smart to go against Michele. So instead he nodded his assent. "Yes, sir."

Michele turned his gaze on the other prisoners. "The same goes for the rest of you."

"Yes, sir," the others spoke quickly.

Michele nodded, pleased. "Buono."

The other members of Caterina's group sent her surprised looks. They hadn't known Michele for very long, so they had never seen this commanding sign of him. Caterina just shrugged. While her father was usually a kind man, he often altered his attitude to fit the situation. There were plenty of times when he'd to make himself intimidating over the years, so Caterina had gotten used to it, for the most part.

"How many of you in there?" Tomas wondered.

"Too many for you to handle," Rick assured him.

The prisoners looked between them.

"You guys rob a bank or somethin'?" Tomas asked. "Why don't you take him to a hospital?"

The five exchanged looks.

"How long have you been locked in that cafeteria?" Rick asked.

"Goin' on like ten months."

"A riot broke out," the larger man said. "Never seen anything like it."

"Attica on speed, man," the white prisoner added.

"Ever heard about dudes goin' cannibal, dyin', comin' back to life?" the smaller prisoner said. "It's crazy."

"One guard looked out for us, locked us up in the cafeteria," Tomas explained. "Told us to sit tight, threw me this piece," he waved his revolver slightly, "and said he'd be right back."

"Yeah, and that was two hundred ninety-two days ago," the big man said.

"Ninety-four accordin' to my calculation—" Axel started to say, but he closed his mouth as Tomas snapped at him, "Shut up!"

Alex looked down, scolded.

Michele's eyes narrowed at Tomas' tone of voice, but he otherwise didn't react to it.

"We were thinkin' the Army or the National Guard should be showin' up any day now," the older black man went on.

"There is no Army," Rick told them.

"What do you mean?" Tomas asked.

"There's no government, no hospitals, no police. It's all gone."

"For real?" the white man gasped.

"Serious."

The prisoners were silent, taking it in.

"What about my moms?" the big man asked.

"My kids?" the older one added. "And my old lady?" He took a harried step forward. "Yo, you got a-a cell phone or somethin' that we can call our families?"

"You just don't get it, do you?" Daryl almost snapped.

"No phones, no computers," Rick tried to explain again. "As far as we can see, at least half of the population's been wiped out. Probably more."

Tomas slowly lowered his arm as he finally realized what they were saying. Once he did, Daryl no longer seemed to feel the need to keep his crossbow trained upon him and lowered his as well. But Caterina didn't. She didn't trust Tomas' temper.

"Ain't no way," Tomas argued.

"See for yourself," Rick suggested.

* * *

The prisoners stepped out of the back entrance into the courtyard, where they were protected by the cage around the stairs. They walked out into the courtyard that Caterina and her group had cleared to see what they were talking about.

Caterina and the rest of them followed the prisoners out.

"Damn, the sun feels good," the older African American sighed as he stretched in the sun.

"Good lord," the white man mumbled as he looked around at all the corpses. "They're all dead."

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see these fences," Tomas said, looking around at the fences that blocked them off from the field.

"You never said—how the hell did you get in here in the first place?" the smaller prisoner asked.

Caterina pointed over to where their group had gotten into the prison. "We cut a hole in the fence over there by that guard tower."

"That easy, huh?"

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Daryl said.

"Easy for you to say," the man scoffed.

The tallest prisoner used the stick that he was holding to poke at one of the corpses. "So what it is this? Like a disease?" he wondered.

"Yeah," Rick replied. "And we're all infected."

Everyone looked at him, including the rest of his people, apart from Caterina. She kept her eye on Tomas instead. She had learned a long time ago the reality of this "disease." After that thing with Randall, she had realized on her own that it must spread somehow other than through just bites or scratches. She eventually came to the conclusion that this disease, whatever it was, was in the air, or possibly the water. Somehow, everyone on Earth had it, living or not."

"What do you mean infected?" the white prisoner wondered. "Like AIDS or somethin'?"

"If I was to kill you, shoot an arrow in your chest, you'd come back as one of these things," Daryl explained as he motioned to the corpse that the tall prisoner had been poking at. "It's gonna happen to all of us."

"Ain't no way these Robin Hood cats are responsible for killin' all these freaks," Tomas scoffed.

"Must be fifty bodies out here," the smaller prisoner agreed.

Tomas looked over at Rick. "Where'd you come from?"

"Atlanta," Rick answered.

Tomas nodded and started walking over to him. "Where're you headed?"

"For now, nowhere."

Tomas nodded again, thoughtfully this time, and looked around at the courtyard, looking at the few walkers that had managed to get into the field and were now banging at the fence to the courtyard, trying to get to them. He pointed to the other side of the field. "I guess you can take that area down there near the water," he said. "Should be comfortable."

Rick nodded in agreement. "We're usin' that field for crops.

"We'll help you move your gear out," Tomas offered, either not realizing what Rick was getting at or ignoring it.

"That won't be necessary," Rick assured him. "We took out these walkers. This prison is ours."

Tomas chuckled. "Slow down, cowboy."

"You snatched the locks off our doors," the small prisoner bit as he stepped up next to Tomas.

"We will be glad to give you new locks, if that is what you are worried about," Michele offered.

"This is _our_ prison," Tomas argued, although he seemed careful not to raise his voice at Michele. "We were here first."

"Locked in a broom closet." Rick scoffed with a humorless smile. It fell just as quickly as it came, and he took on a fiercer tone. "We took it, set you free. It's ours. We spilled blood."

"We're movin' back into our cell block," Tomas went on, not at all bothered by Rick's tone.

"You'll have to get your own."

"It is mine. I have still got personal artifacts in there. That's about as mine as it gets."

As he spoke, Tomas once again pulled out his revolver and started waving it around angrily, not aiming at any-one but out. Daryl immediately aimed his crossbow at him. T-Dog took out his hand piece as he went to stand next to Rick and Michele, but he didn't raise it. Caterina reached down to her waist where her throwing knives were positioned.

The other prisoners quickly formed around Tomas as well. He held out his hand to motion for them to back off.

The white prisoner moved forward to stand between Tomas and the others. "Whoa, whoa, whoa…! Maybe let's try to make this work out so everybody wins."

"I don't see that happening," Tomas said.

"Neither do it," Rick agreed.

"I ain't goin' back in that cafeteria for one more minute."

"There are other cell blocks," the white man pointed out.

"You could leave," Daryl suggested. "Try your luck out on the road."

Tomas just stared at him for a moment before turning his gaze back up on Rick. Then he turned to look around at the courtyard. "If these pussies can do all of this," he said, motioning to all the fallen corpses, "the least we can do is take out another cell block."

"With what?" the larger prisoner asked.

"Atlanta here will spot us some real weapons. Won't you, boss?"

Rick looked thoughtful for a moment. "How stocked is that cafeteria? It must have plenty of food. Five guys lasting almost a year?"

"Sure as hell don't look like anybody's been starvin'," Daryl added, looking pointedly at the larger prisoner.

"There's only a little left," Tomas said.

"We'll take half," Rick decided. "In exchange, we'll help clear out a cell block."

"Didn't you hear him?" the smaller prisoner asked. "There's only a little left."

"Bet you got more food than you got choices. You pay, we'll play. We'll clear out a block for you, then you keep to it."

Thomas thought about it for a moment before nodding. "All right."

"But let's be clear," Rick added, stepping forward threateningly so that he was in Tomas' face. "If we see you out here anywhere near our people, if I so much as even catch a whiff of your scent, I _will_ kill you."

"Deal."

* * *

Tomas led the way back to the mess hall.

"Pantry's back here," he called back to the others.

Caterina looked around the mess hall a little more closely now that they weren't trying to save one of their own. The far corner was filled with garbage bags, and the tables had been pushed up to the walls. There was a line of string connected from one of the pillars to the barred window that acted as a clothesline, and sleeping bags and mattresses were set up towards the back corner.

"You never tried to break out of here?" T-Dog wondered.

"Yeah, we tried to take the doors off," the older prisoner replied. "But you make on peep in here, then those freaks will be lined up outside the door growlin', trying to get in. The windows got bars on there that He-Man couldn't get through."

"Bigger than a five-by-eight," the white man explained.

"Won't find me complainin'," the bigger one added in. "Doin' fifteen years. My left leg can barely fit in one of those bunks."

"Yeah, we don't call him Big Tiny for nothin'," the other man chuckled.

Tomas appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "You done jerking each other off? Sick of waitin' back here."

Caterina glanced over at Rick and met his gaze. It seemed that he did not trust the tone in Tomas' voices just now either. While the rest of their group followed the prisoners in to the kitchen, Rick and Caterina each reached down to place their hands near their weapons. They followed the others back into the pantry, which was almost half filled with provisions. Rick and T-Dog stared around at it all in awe. It was more food than they had seen in over a year.

Daryl looked around at it blankly before stepping up to the leader. "This what you call a little bit of food?" he scoffed.

"Goes fast," Tomas defended himself.

"Mhm," he muttered, obviously not believing him, as he stepped past him to get a better look at all they had.

"You can have a bag of corn, some tuna fish—" Tomas started to say, but he was cut off by Rick.

"We said half. That's the deal," he reminded him before turning to the freezer door next to him. "What's in there?"

"Don't open that," the older prisoner warned him.

Before he could heed his warnings, Rick opened the freezer door only to gag as he was hit with a strong wave of stale urine and feces. While Rick coughed and gagged, supporting himself with the door frame, Michele and Caterina both wrinkled their noses at the smell. They both had fairly good senses of smell, and the stench had hit them almost as hard as it had hit Rick.

Tomas chuckled at Rick's reaction. "He wanted to know."

Rick slammed the freezer door closed before turning to the prisoners, a look of disgust on his face.

The white prisoner had crossed his arms and was staring at the ground in embarrassment. "I can't wait for my own pot to piss in," he muttered, avoiding Rick's eye.

Everyone was silent for a moment as Rick recovered from the smell, until Michele stepped forward and cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention. "We should get some of this back to the others before you continue," he said, looking at Rick specifically. Caterina didn't miss how he said "you" instead of "we."

Rick nodded. "Good idea. Everyone grab something and we'll bring it back to the cell block," he'd instructed the others.

"Actually," Michele spoke up again before the others could take a step, "I believe it would be best if Cat and Daryl stayed here." He didn't explain why he thought so, but it was obvious from a tone and the look that he threw at Tomas that he felt that someone should stay behind to keep an eye on him and the rest of the prisoners.

Rick looked between Michele and Tomas before nodding slowly. "Right." He looked at the couple. "You two okay with that?"

"It's not a problem," Daryl assured him.

With that decided, Rick, T-Dog, and Michele grabbed as much as they could carry and started out of the mess hall. Before passing through the doors, however, Michele stopped to look back at them. "I do not want to hear that you caused my daughter and her friend any trouble while we are gone," he told the prisoners in that stern tone of his.

The prisoners nodded quickly.

Michele smiled at their submission and threw a quick wink at Daryl and his daughter before turning to follow Rick and T-Dog back towards the cell block.

As soon as he was gone, Daryl turned to walk over to one of the tables. "You sure he wasn't in the mafia or somethin'?" he asked as he hopped up on to the table, sitting so that his feet rested on the rounded bench.

"You know, sometimes I do wonder," Caterina muttered conspiratorially, a slight grin on her face. "He's always had a way of demanding respect. Even at this age, he's still capable of instilling fear in even the worst of men."

"Like father like daughter."

She crossed her arms in front of her, an eyebrow raised in a mockingly threatening way. "Are you saying I'm old?"

"No, but you're tiny as hell," Daryl scoffed as he allowed his eyes to roll over her relatively small build. "It's kinda off-puttin' how much strength you've got in that body of yours."

She shrugged, not at all offended. "It's a blessing and a curse."

Daryl's gaze paused at Caterina's waist before he motioned for Caterina to come over to the table where he sat. She hesitated for a moment but walked over obediently, stopping once she stood by his legs. But that didn't seem to be enough, as Daryl reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her so that she stood directly in front of him. When he released her arm, his hand went to her waist and he pulled out one of her throwing knives.

"Where'd you get these?" he asked, looking over the small knife.

"I found them on some corpse. I was running low on arrows, and I figured that I'd need something else that I could use for mid- to long-distance kills."

Daryl raised his eyes from the knife to look her in the eyes. "And how many livin' people have you killed with 'em?"

"I couldn't tell you," she muttered.

"You feel guilty about it?" he wondered in a tone that said that he might already know the answer.

Caterina stared at him for a moment, contemplating whether or not she should give him the answer that he wanted. She knew that he was asking because he wanted to know what spending all of those months alone had done to her. It was possible that he'd already guessed, but he seemed to want to hear it from the horse's mouth rather than just inferring things on his own. Which admittedly made it harder for her. She wanted him to think that those six months along hadn't had any lasting effects on her, although he already knew that she'd become somewhat adverse to physical contact because of it. She didn't want him to know what kind of person she had become as a result of it. But Caterina supposed that he deserved the truth.

"No…" she finally admitted.

Daryl sighed and returned the knife to its sheathe on her hip. And, instead of pulling his hand away in disgust like she expected, he motioned for her to come closer.

Caterina hesitated for a moment, not quite sure what he wanted to her to do. But, when he glanced at the area next to him, she stepped up on to the bench and sat down. As soon as she was, he reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side.

The prisoners watched the two from the kitchen, everyone but Tomas exchanging entertained looks.

"So how long you two been together?" the older prisoner spoke up.

"Not long. A few months," Daryl answered before Caterina could tell him that they weren't actually "together" in the sense that he was thinking.

Caterina looked up at him, surprised.

The prisoner looked shocked. "Really?"

"Why're you so surprised?" Caterina asked as she turned her gaze on him instead of Daryl.

"It's just the way you two look at each other, I figured you were married going on some odd years," he admitted.

"We didn't even meet until this mess started," Daryl informed him.

"Guess the apocalypse did you two a favor then," the white prisoner chimed in.

Daryl looked at Caterina from the corner of his eye, that odd look in his eye that Caterina was just starting to recognize. "Guess so."

* * *

**Vocabulary**

Micio—cat/kitten

Italiano—Italian

Buono—good


	7. Chapter 6

**Author's Note**

Haha! I finished it! And on the same day as the last chapter! And it definitely sounds better in my opinion :) Anyway, hope you guys enjoy! I'll try to get the next chapter started either today or Wednesday. Should be posted by the end of this week, if not earlier.

* * *

Rick and T-Dog returned with some more weapons for the prisoners (Michele had apparently decided to stay behind and help take care of Hershel). They didn't bring any guns, but instead brought melee weapons. They dropped them on to one of the tables to let the prisoners choose which one they wanted. Big Tiny took the hammer, Axel a metal bat, Thomas a crowbar, Andrew a wooden bat, and Oscar an axe.

"Why do I need this when I got this?" Tomas asked as he took out his revolver.

"You don't fire guns," Daryl informed him, "not unless your back's up against the wall. Noise attracts 'em. It really riles 'em up."

"We'll go in two-by-two," Rick started. "Daryl will run point with Cat. T and I will bring up the rear. We stay tight and hold formation, no matter how close the walkers get. Anyone breaks rank, we could all go down. Anyone runs off, they could get mistaken for a walker and end up with an axe to the head."

"And that's where you aim. These things only go down with a head shot."

"You ain't gotta tell us how to take out a man," Tomas scoffed.

"They ain't men," T-Dog argued. "They're somethin' else.

"Just remember to go for the brain," Rick muttered.

Tomas grabbed the keys and walked off, the others prisoners behind him. Caterina and Rick both exchanged looks before they and the rest of their group followed the prisoners.

* * *

Daryl poked his head around a corner, checking for walkers. When he didn't see any, he motioned the okay for the others. They started to move carefully down the hall.

"Man, it's too damn dark in here," Oscar complained.

Daryl glanced down at Oscar's axe, which he was holding too loosely at his side. "Gotta hold it up high, out in front of ya," he instructed. "You're gonna hear 'em before you see 'em."

They continued forward in a tight formation until there was a light clanging nearby.

"It's comin'!" Axel shouted anxiously.

"Shut up!" Caterina snapped much more harshly than she meant to. But Daryl had already explained that noise attracted walkers, and there the idiot was, yelling in an empty hall where his voice would surely echo, making it seem even louder than it actually was and attracting more attention than they needed.

They continued forward a little more, until Caterina heard more clanging accompanied by telltale snarling. She held up her hand to stop the formation and watched as shadows of walkers reflected off the wall at the end of the hall. It was just two; they would be easy to take down.

The walkers turned into the corridor and spotted them immediately. As they started staggering out towards the group, Daryl held up a finger, counting up. Before he could go past two, the prisoners got too antsy and ran forward with war cries. Caterina and her men stood back and watched as the prisoners beat on the walkers, apparently none of them having heard what they'd said about going for the head.

It was like a watching prison gang riot. Big Tiny held one walker by the arms from behind while Axel hit on it. He dropped his bat at an one point and picked up a sharp piece of metal that was on the ground.

"You wanna taste me?" Axel cried as he started shanking the walker.

The four in the back exchanged unimpressed looks.

* * *

The group was finally able to move forward after the prisoners finally got it into their thick skulls that the walkers weren't going down and took out the brain.

They turned out in a four way and paused, hearing another walker coming towards them.

"It's gotta be the brain," Daryl reminded them. "Not the stomach, not the heart." He fired an arrow into the walker's third eye as an example. "The brain."

"I hear you," Axel said. "The brain."

Another walker came into the area, and Oscar stepped forward to hack his axe in its head. Once it was down, he stepped back into the group. "Like that?"

"Uh-huh," Daryl said approvingly.

A woman civilian walker appeared then. Axel moved forward this time, forcing the end of his bat into the walker's head. He stepped back as another prisoner walker appeared, and Rick moved up to stab his machete into its face.

"Stay in tight formation," Rick instructed. "No more prison riot crap."

Even more walkers came, and everyone started fighting—everyone except for Big Tiny, Caterina noticed, who stayed at the back. She would not have even realized that he was missing if not for the fact that he was so large. It was kind of hard to miss his large figure cowering at the back of the group.

Caterina was about to turn and encourage Big Tiny to stay with the group, but she was distracted as another prison walker got past the others, and she put it down before it could get past her. Then she heard Big Tiny's cry of pain from behind them. She turned to see him fending off a prisoner walker that seemed to be missing a hand.

She went to help as she noticed a second walker getting up off the floor in front of Big Tiny. She stabbed her buck knife into its head and went to grab hold of the walker that was trying to get Big Tiny, but she was forced to jump back as someone fired a single shot into its head.

Caterina let the body fall to the floor at her feet as she looked over at the one who'd fired the shot: Tomas. She noticed Daryl glaring at Tomas' back, but the Hispanic didn't seem to notice; his eyes were trained on Caterina, almost seeming to challenge her. Her shoulders tensed in her anger, and she took a step towards him, ready to give him a piece of her mind for shooting at her, when she'd heard Rick's sigh. She turned to see Big Tiny holding one of his hands in front of him, covered in what she assumed to be his own blood. Big Tiny was staring at everyone in shock while Rick just looked at him gloomily.

"Let me see your flashlight," Caterina instructed, holding her hand out to Rick.

He pulled his flashlight from his belt unquestioningly and handed it to her.

Big Tiny seemed to realize what she wanted, and he unbuttoned his jumper so that he could pull it back on one side so that Caterina could look at his shoulder. She motioned for him to turn around as she turned on the flashlight, and she shined the light upon his shoulder. As soon as she saw the line of blood, she sighed. Not only was the cut deep, meaning that there was no way that the fever _wouldn't_ hit, but it was in an area that would make it impossible to just cut it off like they'd done with Hershel's leg.

"I feel fine," Big Tiny was saying as she examined the cut. "I'm fine."

"You can put your shirt back on," Caterina muttered as she turned off the light.

Big Tiny did as she said and turned to look at her and Rick pleadingly. "I'm tellin' you, I don't feel anything. It's just a scratch."

"That's all it takes."

"I can keep fighting!" he tried.

"You cut that old guy's leg off to save his life," Andrew remembered.

"The scratch is too far towards his spine," Caterina said. "If we tried cutting it off, we would only end up cutting into something that we don't want to cut into, like his heart."

"Guys, I'm fine!" Big Tiny continued to try to convince them. "Just..." He sighed, trying to keep himself calm. I'm fine. Look at me. I'm not changing into one of those things."

"Look, there has to be something we can do," Oscar begged. "W could just lock him up."

"Quarantine him," Axel agreed.

"We gotta do somethin'," Andrew said."

Caterina and Rick exchanged looks. Truth was, there wasn't anything they could do. But it didn't seem that these prisoners were going to listen to them if they said so. They hadn't had to see some of the things that they had been forced to see, so they didn't understand the gravity of the situation like they needed to.

"Why you just standin' there?" Andrew snapped. "We gotta save him!"

"There's nothin' we can do," Rick argued.

Andrew shook his head in disbelief. "You son of a bitch..."

"I'm all ri—" Big Tiny started again. But before he could finish, Tomas slammed his crowbar into the back of his head.

Caterina and Rick stared down at his fallen corpse in disbelief before looking at Tomas. He just looked around at them before he started beating in Big Tiny's head, splattering blood everywhere. When he was finished, Tomas looked up at everyone, panting, daring anyone to speak against him. There was an awfully crazed look in his eye, mixed with a look of pure ecstasy.

Tomas walked off, still painting.

* * *

They continued through the corridor, Caterina, Daryl, and Rick at the back this time around while T-Dog and Oscar were on point. They were in the back so that they could keep an eye on Tomas, who walked in front of them.

"You see the look on his face?" Daryl muttered.

"He enjoyed beating Tiny's skull in a little too much," Caterina pointed out.

Rick nodded. "He makes one move…"

"Just give me a signal," Daryl said.

They soon arrived in some laundry room. There were a few washers and driers set up, along with several racks of clean towels and bedsheets and laundry detergent. There were also a pair of doors to the side, probably leading in to the cell block where the prisoners would staying. They could barely hear walkers snarling from the other side.

Rick motioned to Caterina, who removed the ring of keys that Daryl had given her from her belt loop and tossed them down to Tomas' feet.

"I ain't openin' that," Tomas denied immediately.

"Yes, you are," Rick said. "If you want this cell block, you're gonna open the door. Just the one, not both of 'em. Because we need to control this."

Tomas hesitated for a moment before bending down and picking up the keys. He glanced at Andrew before going to the doors, his crowbar tucked under his arm. Everyone else got ready to meet the walkers that were sure to come pouring through.

He unlocked the doors. "You bitches ready?" he asked. He tried to open one door, but it wouldn't budge. He tried again, harder, but still nothing. "I got this," he assured them cockily, and he made to act like he was going to open the one door again, but he reached out at the last minute to throw open both doors.

Several walkers stood waiting behind them.

"I said one door!" Rick snapped.

"Shit happens!"

The walkers started pouring inside, and the group struggled to take them out. Caterina watched from the corner of her eye as Tomas seemed to be waiting for something. Then a walker started to come between him and Rick, and the man swung out, purposely trying to hit Rick. But he threw himself to the side, dodging it. When that plan did not work, Tomas grabbed a nearby walker by the shoulders and threw it at Rick, who fell to the ground with it on top of him.

Caterina fired an arrow in a walker's head before she moved behind Tomas, snatching one of her throwing knives from its sheathe. She stabbed the knife into the walker on top of Rick. The body collapsed on to of him, and she grabbed it by the collar and threw it off. Rick stayed on the ground for a moment, obviously in shock. Caterina stepped over him and held out her hand. Rick paused for a moment before taking it, and she pulled him on to his feet, the two of them exchanging a meaningful look.

The last walker came out then and was taken down by Axel and Oscar.

Now that the crisis had been averted, everyone paused to come down from fight mode.

Tomas looked at Rick, shrugging. "It was comin' at me, bro," he defended himself lamely.

Rick nodded. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. I get it," he said. "Shit happens."

The two stared at one another, Tomas looking slightly afraid. He was staring up at Rick, trying to figure out what he was going to do. It seemed like he wasn't going to retaliate, but Caterina knew that he would as soon as he was able to bring himself to do it. But she could see the conflict in Rick's eyes, even as his face remained emotionless.

She slowly raised her arm, still holding the bloodied throwing knife in her hand. Andrew seemed to notice her, and his eyes widened in fear when he saw the hardened determination on her face.

"No!" the prisoner shouted. He raised his bat threateningly and took a step around Rick, but the former Sheriff caught him around the waist before he could get any closer.

Tomas tried to take advantage of his distraction, and he raised his weapon. But Caterina saw him and, with a practiced flick of her wrist, she sent the throwing knife flying towards him. The knife imbedded itself in his temple, buried to the hilt inside of his head.

Tomas' body fell to the side, collapsing into a bundle of limps on the floor.

Everyone stared at Caterina in shock, her group because she had just killed someone by throwing a knife at him hard enough to bury it to the hilt, and the prisoners because she didn't seem at all conflicted about it. In fact, she had a look of sick satisfaction on her face, one that her group had never seen on her. Sure, she'd killed before, but she always seemed to somewhat regret it, at least to a small extent. But she didn't seem to regret this kill at the least.

Andrew finally seemed to snap out of his shock, and he swung the end of his bat into Rick's ribs, causing his grip to loosen enough for him to escape. Rick doubled over slightly, his arms wrapped around his stomach.

Seeing as Rick was no longer able to keep Andrew under control, Daryl stepped forward, aiming his crossbow at the man threateningly before he could take even a step towards Caterina.

"Easy now," he warned him as he stepped out in front of Caterina protectively.

Andrew stared between them all fearfully before he turned on his heel and took off.

"I got him," Rick gasped. Once he regained his breath, he ran out after Andrew.

Daryl turned his crossbow on Oscar, who was staring after Rick in surprise. He turned to Daryl when he saw him pointing his weapon at him.

"Man, get down on your knees," Daryl snapped.

Oscar raised his hands passively as he got down like Daryl said, putting his axe next to him. Axel quickly did the same.

"We don't have no affiliation to what just happened," Axel assured them. "Tell 'em, Oscar."

Oscar just shook his head. "Stop talkin', man."

* * *

When Rick returned to the laundry room, he was alone. No one dared to ask what had happened to Andrew. Instead, they turned their attention on Oscar and Axel, who'd been kept on their knees the entire time that Rick was gone.

Rick walked straight up to Oscar, aiming his pistol at his head. T-Dog was holding Axel at gun-point as well, but from further back. Axel was all nerves while Oscar appeared calm.

"We didn't have nothin' to do with that," Oscar told him.

"You didn't know?" Rick scoffed. "You knew. Cat, Daryl, let's end this now!" He turned on Axel. Daryl quickly took his place, holding his knife to Oscar's neck.

"Sir! Sir, please! Please, listen to me!" Axel pleaded. "It was them that was bad! It wasn't us!"

"Oh, that's convenient."

"You saw what he did to Big Tiny!" he said. "He was my friend… Please, we ain't like that, I like my pharmaceuticals, but I'm no killer. Oscar here, he's a B&E, and he ain't very good at it neither. We ain't the violent kind! They were! Please, I swear to God! I wanna live!"

Rick stared down at Axel for a moment before turning back on Oscar. "What about you?"

"I ain't never pleaded for my life. And I ain't about to start now." He turned his gaze up on Rick, a determined look in his eyes. "So you do what you gotta do."

The four exchanged thoughtful looks.

* * *

Daryl opened the door to another cell block. They had decided that Oscar and Axel really didn't have anything to do with what Tomas tried to pull, so they were going to keep to their promise to clear out a cell block for them.

Rick threw Axel inside, while T-Dog escorted Oscar in, Caterina behind him. They didn't bother going to clear the cells; all the bodies were already lied out in the entryways, each with a bullet in their heads, and each with their hands tied behind their backs with zip ties. It looked like some of the guards had chosen to take them out to spare them the fate of the rest of the prisoners.

Axel and Oscar stared around at the bodies in shock.

"Oh man…" Axel muttered. "I knew these guys. They were good men."

"Let's go," Rick ordered the rest of his people.

Oscar turned to them before anyone could take a step to leave. "So you're just gonna leave us in here? Man, this is sick."

"We're lockin' down this cell block. From now on, this part of the prison is yours. Take it or leave it. That was the deal." Rick turned and stepped out of the cell block.

Daryl took a step after him. "You think this is sick? You don't wanna know what's outside."

"Consider yourselves the lucky ones," Rick spoke up from outside. With that, he left, and T-Dog stepped out of the cell block after him.

Daryl took another step after the two. "Sorry about your friends, man," he apologized sincerely before he turned and went after Rick.

Caterina paused to nod at the two prisoners before following after Daryl.

"A word of advice," T-Dog's voice sounded from behind her, still by the cell block, "take those bodies outside and burn 'em."

* * *

When the four of them finally returned to Block C for the day, they found Michele, Carl, Glenn, and Gabriele standing outside of the cell that Hershel was in. The others were not to be seen; it could only be assumed that they were gathered in the cell with him.

"Hershel stopped breathing," Carl informed them as they approached. "Mom and Alison saved him."

"It's true," Glenn said.

Rick nodded to the four of them before passing into the cell.

"Still no fever," Lori spoke up from where she stood with Alison between the wall and bunk bed.

Rick nodded in understanding. He went around Maggie and Beth to stand at Hershel's head. The old man was still unconscious, but breathing. He looked almost peaceful, as if he had not just lost his leg and almost died. His mouth moved slightly, and everyone immediately went to stand close in case he was going to wake up and say something-everyone but Caterina and Daryl, who stayed inside the doorway behind Carl.

But Hershel only sighed, and everyone deflated.

Lori continued to stare at Hershel, so she saw as his eyes started to flutter. She moved forward in excitement, and everyone noticed and looked back at Hershel. His eyes opened, and he looked out at everyone gathered around him.

"Daddy?" Maggie said while Beth cried out, "Daddy!"

Rick reached into his pocket and took out the key to the handcuffs so he could unlocked them.

Hershel continued to look around at them until his eyes found Rick. He reached his hand to him weakly, unable to bring his elbow off of the mattress. Rick glanced around uncertainly before he took the hand and knelt down. Hershel smiled weakly, thankful.

Rick looked to the sisters as they hugged and kissed each other, both crying in relief. He turned it to Carl, who smiled at him. His gaze then traveled up to Caterina, who just nodded to him with a small smile. He looked back down at Hershel, who seemed to have fallen back under.

Lori smiled slightly before leaving the cell.

Rick watched her go before turning to Beth. "C'mere," he muttered as he held up Hershel's limp hand and reached out to Beth with his other hand, placing it in her father's. He patted her on the back before getting back on to his feet and going after Lori.

Caterina stayed in the doorway for a while longer, watching as Beth and Maggie fawned over their father. Gabriele had moved to stand with Alison, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. She noticed that Alison looked positively exhausted. She remembered that her father had said that Alison wasn't feeling well that morning and, while she hadn't looked ill when she hid from her before, she certainly did now. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her face was even more pale than was usual whenever she felt unwell. But Caterina supposed that could be attributed to whatever she had done for Hershel.

"I'm gonna go sit down for a while," Caterina muttered to Daryl, who hadn't moved from her side.

Daryl nodded, a slightly worried look in his eyes. But, whatever he was worried about, he didn't seem to feel the need to talk about it (at least not right now) because he just turned and watched her go as she walked back out into the sitting area.

She pulled a rag out of her back pocket and took out the knife that she had used to kill Tomas. She hadn't had a chance to clean it off since she got it back, apart from the initial wipe down on her pants. So she figured that now would be as good a time as any to clean it. While she didn't feel any guilt about killing the guy, she didn't want the reminder.

She had only managed to wipe off a majority of the blood when Rick walked over to her, having just returned from talking with Lori. He dropped down into the bench across from her, his head immediately lowering to his hands.

"How's Lori?" Caterina asked.

Rick ran his hands over his face. "She's fine. She's just stressed, overwhelmed…"

She nodded in understanding and turned back to her knife.

There was a moment of silence as Caterina focused on cleaning every speck of blood off her knife. She could feel Rick's eyes on her, but she didn't dare look up from her work.

"Cat," Rick finally spoke up, his voice wary. "About what you did back there…"

"You want to know why I killed Tomas for you," Caterina finished for him, glancing up just in time to see Rick nod. "You may have tricked everyone into believing you'd do anything to protect them, including killing someone, and not be bothered by it. But I know you better than that. You were conflicted about Tomas, so I did it for you to save you from feeling the guilt. I know what too much guilt can do to a man, and I think it would be better if you're able to continue being able to lead us."

Rick shifted slightly across from her in what Caterina interpreted as an anxious movement. "Speaking of guilt…" he started.

"I've already forgotten about it, Rick," she assured him, knowing instantly what he was going to say.

"But have you forgiven me?"

Caterina finally put her knife and rag aside to look up at Rick. She adopted a somewhat pleading look as she met his gaze. "Don't ask me that," she muttered. She knew that she wouldn't be able to lie to him, not because she couldn't, but because she didn't want to. While she felt betrayed, she still somewhat thought of Rick as family, and she hated lying to family (although sometimes it was necessary).

"Please," Rick begged, leaning forward earnestly. She half expected him to reach across the table and grab her hand. "I need to know if you forgive me. I know what I did was horrible, and I'll never stop regrettin' it. Please."

She gave a weary sigh as she stood up, grabbing her rag and knife and tucking them away. She hadn't finished cleaning it, but she supposed she would have to finish it in her room. "I'm sorry. Eight months ago, I would've forgiven you. But I'm not the same woman I was back then," she admitted (and she didn't miss how it seemed to add to Rick's guilt), "so I don't...and I don't know if I ever will."

With that, Caterina walked back into the cell block, leaving Rick at the table, his face buried in his hands and his shoulders sagging under the weight of her words.


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's Note**

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this out, again! I've been in kind of a funk lately. I think I need to get out and do something, since I've been cooped up in my dorm with nothing to do :/ I didn't even do anything on my birthday last month! Anyway, I'm sorry again it's taken so long. It's partially because all of this came from my own imagination, and it took a while to come up with the best dialogue. But I've finally finished, so I hope you enjoy!

I'm sorry if the writing gets a little suckish. I had this set idea of how I wanted things to go, and I kind of lost how to write it out, so I tried my best.

Again, I'm really sorry it's taken so long. I promise I'm not going to abandon this story!

* * *

**~*Daryl's Point of View*~**

While the group got everything ready to go and get settled in properly, Daryl kept throwing glances toward the cell that Caterina slept in. It was well into the morning now. He knew that she liked getting up early, so he was kind of worried. She hadn't left her cell yet. He wasn't sure if she was awake but just wasn't coming out, like yesterday, or if she was still asleep. If she wasn't coming out, then that meant there was something wrong; if she was still asleep…well, who was to say what that meant.

"She still asleep?"

Daryl almost jumped at the sudden voice, but managed to keep his composure. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders as he turned his gaze back to his crossbow, ignoring the amused look that he knew Rick was giving him.

"Dunno," Daryl muttered.

"Edgar has not come out of the cell," an annoyingly familiar voice with an Italian accent pointed out.

Daryl looked over at where Gabriele and Michele were helping get everything ready. Apparently, Alison was feeling much better today, so they were planning on finally starting to pull their own weight (that was mostly directed towards Gabriele, since Michele had been the one to help clear the courtyard, and he helped with the food that they got from the prisoners). Right now, Gabriele was staring at Daryl with that loathsome look that he always gave him, while Michele just looked between the two of them in exasperation.

"What does that gotta do with anything?" Daryl grumbled.

Gabriele rolled his eyes. "If you took the time to observe instead of focusing your mind on one thing at a time like an idiota," he started, completely ignoring how Daryl's jaw clenched angrily at the poorly hidden insult, "you would have realized that Edgar does not leave my sister's side until she wakes up each morning. He refuses to leave when she is in a vulnerable state."

When he had finished talking, Daryl just continued to glare at him with a tense jaw. Sure, he was Caterina's brother, so he felt like he had to be at least somewhat civil towards him, but he had been nothing but a dick since they met. He understood that, in his eyes, he was the one who was "taking his sister away," but Caterina was a grown-ass woman, for God's sake. She was old enough to get into whatever relationship she damn well pleased, and Gabriele just needed to get used to it. Even Michele understood that Caterina could make her own decisions in who she wanted to involve herself with, and he seemed perfectly fine with it. In fact, it looked like Gabriele was the only one with a problem.

"So, since Edgar hasn't left, she must still be asleep?" Rick asked as he looked between the two of them warily.

"Si," Gabriele agreed.

Rick looked thoughtful for a moment before turning back to Daryl. "How much sleep has Cat gotten in the last few days?"

"Not much," Daryl grumbled, turning his gaze from Gabriele reluctantly to look at Rick. "She didn't sleep at all the night before last, and I'm pretty sure she stayed up the first night too."

Rick nodded. "Then let's give her more time."

At that moment, Alison stepped out of the cell that she shared with Caterina's family. "I wouldn't if I were you," she warned them. "Cat hates to be left to sleep in, especially when there's stuff to do."

"She can deal with it for one day," Rick argued. "If she continues like this, she's gonna end up runnin' herself ragged."

"I agree, and I think the two of us should sit down with her and come up with a way for her to get more sleep without her getting upset about missing out on work. For now, however, we should wake her up," Alison insisted with a surprisingly commanding tone.

"All right," he relented with a sigh.

Alison nodded to him in thanks for his consent and started down to Caterina's cell. She paused, however, to motion for Daryl to follow her. "Could you come with me, Daryl?" she asked.

"What for?"

"I'm gonna need your help waking her."

Daryl frowned. Why would she need help waking Caterina up?

"Please?"

Daryl nodded, and Alison flashed him a slight smile before continuing down to Caterina's cell. He moved his crossbow to his back and threw Gabriele a smug look before following his fiancé down to his sister's cell.

* * *

**~*Caterina's (Dream) Point of View*~**

_She ran as fast as she could, dodging tree branches and jumping over roots. All the while, she kept her hand pressed over a gaping wound in her side in an attempt to still the blood flow, but it didn't seem to be doing much good. She could still feel the warm liquid leaking through the gaps of her fingers. The longer that she went on, the harder that it became to run, but she couldn't stop. When she first started running, she'd had a horde of walkers on her tail. While she could only hear a few now, she knew that the others weren't far behind, following the scent of fresh blood._

_But she figured that she should take advantage of the situation before the rest caught up, so she took a sharp turn and ran to a tree that she had passed quite a few times during her runs. It was relatively easy to climb, so she wouldn't have to worry about not making it in the condition that she was in._

_As soon as she reached the tree, she stashed her buck knife in its sheathe at her waist and started climbing. She felt fingers grabbing at her feet, and she kicked out once to loosen their hold before she pulled herself up onto a nearby branch. It was high enough up that the walkers wouldn't be able to grab her, and yet low enough that she wouldn't hurt herself if she ended up falling off. She wanted to go up higher, but she didn't feel like she had the strength._

_Now that she was safe (for the most part), she gave herself a moment to catch her breath. As soon as she had settled her breathing, she set to work. If she wanted to get out of this tree and back to safety, she needed to take care of her side. And the only thing that she had with her to treat it was a lighter and a metal spoon that she'd conveniently picked up a few hours ago. She wasn't even sure why she had. When she saw it, she just had this compulsion, like when she decided to put on her dog tags the day that the farm was overrun, the day that she'd been separated from her friends. She wasn't sure why it was necessary, but she had long since learned to listen to that little voice inside her head that told her what to do (and no, she wasn't schizophrenic)._

_She pulled the spoon and lighter out of her pocket, careful not to drop either of them. She didn't think that she would be able to climb down and then back up again if she did. Not to mention there were still walkers under her. She flicked the lighter on, pausing to watch the flame flickering in the light wind for a moment before she moved the spoon into the flame. She knew that it would take a long time for the spoon to heat up enough, so she just sat back and watched as the metal slowly turned from a cold silver to a warm, glowing orange. Once it had, she turned off the flame and tucked the lighter back into her pocket, freeing her hand so that she could roll up her shirt. She grimaced as she saw the bloodied mess on her side. It definitely wasn't a pretty sight. But bullet wounds never were._

_Caterina was _really_ getting tired of being shot…_

_She took in a deep breath and brought the heated spoon to her side. It was still glowing, but it was a darker orange, which meant that she didn't have much time left. So she didn't even bother giving herself enough time to prepare for it. Instead, she just pressed the spoon over the wound. She screamed as soon as the metal touched her skin, the sound riling the walkers underneath her. She could feel and hear the skin around the bullet sizzling as the blood vessels there were burned shut, and that all too familiar scent of burning flesh hit her like a wave._

_The scene changed, and suddenly she was back in the battlefield. She could see herself jogging through the Iraqian forest, supporting one of her comrades as he clutched at his wounded side. The sound of gunfire was further behind them now, but Caterina knew that in no way did it mean they were safe._

_"I have to stop," Aaron panted when they had to hurtle over a tree root to keep from falling on their faces._

_"No, come on," she tried to encourage him. "Just a little bit further. We're getting close to base."_

_He shook his head. "No, Cat, I have to stop." He gasped as Caterina guessed another wave of pain hit him, and his feet just stopped moving, causing Caterina to stop as well. She looked at his face, contorted in pain. With the camouflage paint on his face, although smeared from him sweating so hard, it was hard to see what his skin was like, but she had a feeling that he was probably white as a sheet._

_Caterina nodded slowly. "Okay…"_

_Aaron sighed in relief as he let Caterina maneuver him over to a nearby tree. He groaned as they both lowered him down at the base of it only to sigh in relief when he was able to lean back into the trunk, alleviating some of the pressure that standing had put on his wounded side._

_Caterina just stood in front of him, her hands on her hips as she struggled to catch her breath._

_"I'll be…fine in a few minutes," he assured her, panting just as heavily, if not more so. "I just…I just need to…rest for a bit…"_

_"Understood," she muttered. "I'll check the area, make sure it's clear…"_

_He smiled slightly, obviously amused. And Caterina didn't need to ask to know what he was amused about. He'd told her plenty of times that he found it refreshing how much of a soldier she was. He, as well as the rest of the squad, thought that she was even more of one than the rest of them. "All right. Just be careful, kitty-cat."_

_She rolled her eyes at the nickname and turned away, stalking off into the surrounding vegetation. She didn't dare venture out too far, just in case someone from the enemy team stumbled upon Aaron while she was gone. She knew that he still had a knife, and she was pretty sure that he had a handgun strapped to his ankle, but she wasn't sure how well he would do in a confrontation in the state that he was in._

_She peeked around a tree into a clearing a few meters from where she had left Aaron. When she saw that it was clear, she stepped out from behind the tree slowly. At that same moment, someone came running into the clearing from the other side. Her hand immediately went to her handgun, but she paused when she recognized the face. He was one of her comrades._

_Unfortunately, before she could even begin to relax, knowing that she was in no danger, her comrade stepped on a freshly dug mound of earth._

_"No!" Caterina cried as she surged forward, in the vain hope that she would get to him in time. But she hadn't even taken more than two steps when his foot came off of the mound. Then there was the explosion._

* * *

**~*Daryl's Point of View*~**

Daryl stood behind Alison as she knelt at Caterina's side, shaking her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. She had been at it for what felt like forever (even the dog had seemed to grow bored and had left the cell), and Caterina hadn't even shown any signs of waking. While he didn't let it show, he was worried. He didn't remember her ever being such a heavy sleeper. There had been one or two times during their time on Hershel's farm when he had tried to sneak into Caterina's tent while she was sleeping—not for any bad reasons, thank you; both of those times, he had just wanted to borrow something—but she had woken up every time, before he had even finished unzipping the tarp.

"Didn't know she was such a heavy sleeper," he grumbled, deciding to voice his thoughts.

"She usually isn't," Alison muttered. He could just barley see the frown on her face as she finally pulled her hand away. The sight of it only made him worry even more.

"Is she all right?" Lori spoke up from the doorway, sounding just as worried as Daryl. She had followed them to Caterina's cell as soon as she'd spotted them moving towards it. Apparently, she had thought that there was something wrong. Daryl was starting to think that she might end up being right…

"She's fine," Alison assured her, although Daryl could tell from the way that she said that she wasn't too sure. She looked up at Daryl and motioned for him to kneel down next to her. "Come here. I'm going to need you to hold her hands."

Daryl frowned at that. "What for?"

"I think Caterina might be having a nightmare. If she is, then you're going to have to hold her hands down to keep her from lashing out." When Daryl just continued to stare at her, confused and slightly worried by what she meant by lashing out, Alison sighed heavily. "Just…please," she begged him.

He grunted his consent and knelt down next to Alison. But before he could even reach to grab Caterina's hands like Alison instructed, her eyes suddenly snapped open. Both he and Alison froze (although Daryl had a feeling that she was frozen for a different reason) as she looked up at them, an almost wild look in her eyes. He saw her hand twitch from the corner of his eye, and he suddenly realized why Alison had meant.

Caterina snatched her buck knife from where she had kept it strapped to her thigh and swung at Daryl, meaning to cut his throat. Luckily, he was just as quick, and he leaned back just in time.

"Cat!" Lori shrieked from the doorway of the cell.

She didn't seem to hear her as she took another swipe at Daryl, but he managed to grab her wrist. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he snapped. She struggled to pull her wrist out of his hand, but he just tightened his grip, enough that it made Caterina wince but not enough to hurt her too bad.

Alison seemed to unfreeze (finally!), and she leaned forward to place her hand over Caterina's eyes. All it managed to do was make her fight even more, and Daryl had to grab her other hand to keep her from trying to grab for her switchblade, which she had placed on the table next to the bed. "It's all right," Alison soothed. "It's okay. We're not going to hurt you."

Daryl looked at her like she had grown two heads. What, did she think that was going to work?

Low and behold, it did. As soon as Alison started talking in what Daryl supposed was her nursing voice, he felt Caterina's arms go lax in his grip. He looked between the two of them in shock, sure that Lori was doing the same.

The sound of hurried footsteps met Daryl's ears, and he and Alison looked over their shoulders towards the doorway just as Rick and T-Dog appeared behind Lori, each of them wielding weapons. They had apparently thought that something had happened to Caterina and she had somehow turned. But when they saw Daryl holding on to her wrists and Alison covering her eyes, and the buck knife clutched loosely in Caterina's hand, they relaxed, although they were understandably confused.

"What's goin' on?" Rick wondered, looking between Caterina's knife and the two kneeling at her side.

"Nothing," Alison replied quickly. "She just got a little spooked waking up to us standing over her, that's all."

Daryl glanced at her from the corner of his eye. A little spooked? That was more than just a little spooked. She damn well went crazy!

Rick frowned, obviously not quite believing them, but he seemed to decide that it wasn't his business to question things, whatever it was. So instead he just nodded slowly. "All right then…" He and T-Dog exchanged looks before disappearing from the doorway, Daryl assumed to go assure the others that everything was okay.

Alison gave a relieved sigh as she removed her hand from Caterina's eyes. "You can let go of her now," she muttered to Daryl. "She's fine."

He looked down at Caterina, who had gone stock still in her bed and was staring up at the bottom of the bunk bed in shame. That, combined with how well Alison had taken things, made him wonder if she hadn't reacted like that before. But instead of asking, he just did as Alison said and released his grip on Caterina's wrists. Her arms immediately fell to her sides, and she tucked her knife back into its sheathe.

"Sorry…" Caterina muttered, refusing to look at either of the two beside her.

Alison gave an understanding smile. "Rick and the others are getting ready to go out and get everything settled in right," she informed her as she got to her feet. "We'll leave you to get dressed." She tapped Daryl on the shoulder, drawing his gaze up to her, and motioned for him to follow her as she walked out of the cell past Lori.

He glanced back down at Caterina, who still refused to look at him, and frowned. He pushed himself to his feet and strode after Alison, his brow set in a determined scowl.

* * *

**~*Caterina's Point of View*~**

She continued to stare up at the bottom of the bunk bed for a while longer after Daryl and Alison had left. She could still feel Lori standing in the doorway, staring at her in what she guessed was worry and confusion.

This was the reason that she hadn't slept since reuniting with them. She hadn't wanted this to happen. But there were only so many days that she could go without sleep, and she had already missed a few before stumbling upon everyone on that road. She had hoped that her brother and father and Alison would make sure that the others didn't see what she had been reduced to, but apparently she was wrong. Alison had purposely brought some of them in to see what happened. She didn't know if was to let them know not to try to wake her up on her own, or if it was to force her into telling them about it, but whatever the reason, she wasn't sure if she would be able to say outright what was wrong with her. While she didn't consider herself a prideful person, it made her sick to think about telling them what all those months alone had done to her.

"Are you okay?" Lori asked, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen over the cell.

Caterina sighed heavily and sat up in the bed. "I'm fine," she muttered. She tossed her legs off the bed so that she was sitting on the edge and leaned forward so that she was being propped up by her forearms. She ran a tired hand over her face, much like Rick always did when he was stressed. "…I'm sorry you had to see that."

Lori stepped a little further into the cell. "It's not your fault," she argued in a surprisingly strong tone. When she spoke again, her voice was softer, understanding. "Alison's told me a bit of what you went through during those months that you were by yourself. I just didn't know it was that bad…"

She chuckled humorously. "Yeah, well, you try surviving on your own in the zombie apocalypse for six months and we'll see if you don't come out with some problems."

The two fell into another uncomfortable silence, Lori staring at her as if she were waiting for something and Caterina refusing to look up from the floor. Finally, Lori seemed to realize that she wasn't going to get whatever it was that she was waiting for, and she spoke again.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

"It might make you feel better," Lori pressed.

Caterina sighed and finally looked up at her. She knew from the sudden look of pity that fell over Lori's face that she looked properly worn. She could only imagine how dark the bags under her eyes were, and she was certain that her eyes themselves were tired looking. "Look, Lori, I appreciate your concern," she sighed again, "and I realize that you're trying to help, but I'd really like to just forget that those few months happened. Talking about it just brings up the memories, which doesn't do much good for my condition," she pointed out, hoping that Lori would get the hint.

"Maybe, but keeping it bottled up isn't good for you either."

"It's done good for me so far," she argued.

"Has it?" Lori asked. Caterina just stared at her with that tired look, and Lori gave a soft sigh. "Look, I'm not gonna push you," she said softly. "You don't have to talk if you don't want to. But at least consider talking about it to _someone_."

"I'll think about it," she muttered, deciding that it would be better if she just agreed. If she didn't, there was no way that Lori would stop bugging her about it.

Lori nodded. "Thank you."

Satisfied, Lori turned to leave the cell, only to be stopped when Caterina called after her.

"Lori…"

She turned back to see Caterina staring at her with an almost desperate look on her face. She smiled softly. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she reassured her. "And I'm sure Daryl won't either," she added, almost like an afterthought.

Caterina's shoulders straightened slightly, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders from Lori's promise not to say anything about her condition. "Thanks."

* * *

**~*Daryl's Point of View*~**

Daryl jogged up behind Alison as she was returning to her shared cell with Gabriele and Michele and grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. Alison turned to look at him with an almost pleading look, but he wasn't going to be deterred. He had to know what was up with Caterina's reaction just now. He hadn't seen her react so violently to anything in this (admittedly short) amount of time that he'd known her, and he wanted to know why she had.

"What the hell was that?" he snapped.

"I told you that I would need your help waking her," Alison reminded him.

He frowned. "I take it that wasn't the first time she's reacted like that then."

She gave a sad smile. "No, and it probably won't be the last."

"Why?" he demanded, his worry increasing by the second.

Alison paused, apparently considering for a moment whether or not she give a response. "You know that she was on her own for six months." She spoke slowly, her voice hesitant, despite her decision to tell him. "Living in a world like this by yourself with no one to turn to for safety or security, it would break anyone…" She paused before adding, "Even someone as strong as Cat."

"Break her how?" Daryl growled as his heart sank into his stomach. A part of him really didn't want to know the answer, but another part, the part that felt guilty that Caterina, the woman that he had grown to care more for than anyone that he had ever known (except maybe his brother), had been left to survive for so long on her own—that part _needed_ to know what the isolation had done to her. He needed to know what damage had been done, so he could find a way to fix it. Because he _would_ fix it, no matter what it took.

"Gabriele believes that she's suffering from PTSD," Alison admitted, "and I'm afraid he might be right."

"How do you recover from that?"

Alison smiled slightly, as if she knew the reason why Daryl was so adamant to know all of this. "In this day and age, it won't be easy," she admitted. "It's something that she'll have to come back from on her own. We just have to be patient."

Daryl frowned. That definitely wasn't the answer he'd wanted to hear.

"Don't tell anyone about this, all right?" she asked. "I doubt Cat would appreciate the attention."

"Yeah, I know," he muttered as he started walking away. He needed to think of something to do to help. He didn't know much about PTSD, but if what Alison said was true, that Caterina had to come out of it on her own, then he needed to find a way to help push her along.

"Daryl?" Alison called, making him stop and looked back over his shoulder. "Thanks."

He frowned again, this time in confusion. "For what?"

She gave a small, grateful smile. "For caring so much about her."

The frown cleared from Daryl's face, and he turned away with a grunt. "You don't gotta thank me for that."

* * *

**Author's Note (Again)**

Uh-oh! PTSD? That can't be good, can it? :D Oooh, I'm such a horrible mother to my OCs.

Okay, so someone asked me to tell you what I picture Caterina to look like. For the life of me, I can't remember who it was, and I don't know if I was dreaming that someone asked me that (because I've done that before, as sad as it is!), but I'm gonna answer anyway! So if you don't wanna know, you can stop here. I obviously picture her being Italian, since I made her family Italian. In my mind, she has raven black hair that falls to about mid-black and brown eyes, full of mischief with just a touch of wisdom. She's slim, with some obvious muscles, and has a golden tan. She's pretty, but not gorgeous; she's average. And, during the story, I almost always picture her with some amount of dirt on her face, much like Daryl. :3

Hope that answers your question, whoever asked!

Oh yeah, and just in case you couldn't figure it out from context: Idiota means idiot or simple-minded in Italian lol


	9. Chapter 8

**Author's Note**

Sooo this definitely didn't turn out like I wanted it to. But oh well. I'm lost on how to make it sound better, or make it flow better. And I wanted to get this out today for The Phoenix in the Flames (happy birthday)! So here it is.

Please excuse the crappy writing and try to enjoy!

* * *

After changing her shirt and leaving Lori with Hershel and Alison, Caterina set out to help the others. They were moving the cars out of the entrance. Not only would it give them quicker access to their vehicles if something happened and they had to leave the prison, it also let them out without having to maneuver around the other vehicles. At any rate, if they left them there, it would be a clear sign to other survivors that there were people inside. And Caterina knew how dangerous that could be.

But before they could move all the cars, they needed to move the bus. So T-Dog drove the van out into the field, and they used a chain that they found and hooked the van to the truck so he could pull it to the side.

"Okay, let's get the other cars in," Rick instructed once they had moved the bus far enough away. "We'll park 'em in the west entry of the yard."

"Good. Our vehicles camped out there look like a giant vacancy sign," Daryl grunted.

Rick motioned to the corpses littering the yard from their first day there. "After that, we need to load up these corpses so we can burn 'em."

T-Dog looked around at all the bodies that they would have to gather up and sighed. "Gonna be a long day."

"Gabriele and I will get started on that while you move the cars," Michele offered.

Rick nodded to him in thanks. "Thank you."

Michele motioned to his son, and the two of them stalked off into the field, not before Gabriele sent Daryl his usual glare. Caterina rolled her eyes. She wasn't stupid. She had noticed the animosity between the two of them. She had just decided to ignore it for the moment, thinking that Gabriele would get over whatever it was about Daryl that he didn't like after spending a few days with them. But, instead, it looked like it had only gotten worse.

She wasn't sure what his problem was, but she figured that she would have to talk to him about it eventually, because she wasn't about to continue to let her brother treat Daryl so poorly.

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" Carol asked, her voice bringing Caterina out of her thoughts. "We could use some more help."

Daryl pointed to the tower. "Up in the guard tower."

"Guard tower?" Rick parroted. "They were just up there last night."

Daryl and Caterina exchanged amused looks. If you thought about it, it was blatantly obvious what those two were doing going up in the tower so often. The tension between them was worse than any couple that Caterina had ever met.

Daryl cupped his hand around his mouth and called up to the tower. "Glenn! Maggie!"

They waited for a moment, watching the tower closely. Glenn's head was the first to pop up. They could see from down in the field that he didn't have his shirt on. He stepped out of the box, buttoning up his jeans from what they could tell. And they could see Maggie moving around in the background, apparently putting on her own clothes.

The others on the ground laughed.

"You comin'?" Daryl shouted up.

"What?" Glenn shouted back.

The others laughed even harder at the confusion on his face. Either he hadn't heard correctly, or he didn't get the joke.

"You comin'?" Daryl shouted again.

Glenn continued to look confused, which just made the others all the more amused. Caterina reached out and slapped Daryl on the arm gently. While the teasing was amusing, it was just cruel, seeing as Glenn's mind didn't work like that. He would probably spend the next few hours thinking about what Daryl said before he even began to understand.

Daryl just smirked at her, and Caterina rolled her eyes, grin still in place, as she turned back to the tower. Maggie had come out to join Glenn on the railing. "Come down here!" she called up to them. "We could use a hand!"

"Yeah, w-we'll be right down!" Glenn called back.

The five on the ground started walking back to the entrance, still laughing at the couple up in the tower and Daryl's poorly hidden innuendo.

"Rick!"

They stopped to look back at Caterina's family where they were standing in the middle of the field, among a pile of corpses, staring up at something in the courtyard. Rick turned to see what they were staring at, and his smile fell from his face. Caterina followed his gaze and saw Axel and Oscar walking out towards the fence that separated the courtyard from the field.

Rick's hand went straight to the revolver at his waist as he started up to where they were. "Come with me," he ordered.

The others started after him, Caterina pausing to motion to her father and brother. The two instantly dropped the corpse that they'd been carrying and hurried to catch up with the others as they made their way to the courtyard.

When the prisoners saw the group approaching, they went forward to meet them , coming out into the field to stand on the gravelled road.

"That's close enough," Rick warned .

The prisoners stopped, knowing that it would be a bad idea to anger him any further.

"We had a deal," he reminded them.

"Please, mister, w-we know that," Axel stuttered. "We made a deal."

As he spoke, Glenn and Maggie came walking out of the entrance to the tower behind them. They paused at the sight of them while Oscar looked back at them before deciding that they weren't much of a threat and turned back to Rick and his posse.

"But you gotta understand, we can't live in that place another minute. You follow me? All of the bodies—people we knew… Blood, brains everywhere… There's ghosts."

"Why don't you move the bodies out?" Daryl asked, obviously not feeling at all sorry for them.

"You should be burnin' 'em," T-Dog added.

"We tried," Axel replied. "We did."

"The fences are down on the far side of the prison," Oscar explained. "Every time we drag a body out, those…things just line up. We've been droppin' the bodies and just running back inside."

Axel moved forward earnestly and Rick's hand fell back down to his revolver while the rest of his group shifted anxiously. Oscar glanced back at Glenn and Maggie nervously before moving up to stand by Axel.

"Look, we had nothing to do with Tomas and Andrew—nothing," Axel tried. "You tryin' to prove a point? You proved it, bro. We'll do whatever it takes to be part of your group. Just please, please…don't make us live in that place."

"Our deal is non-negotiable," Rick said matter-of-factly. "You either live in your cell block or you leave."

Axel looked to the ground with a disappointed sigh.

"I told you this was a waste of time. They ain't no different than the pricks who shot our boys," Oscar scoffed, looking pointedly at Rick. "You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out, like…" He paused, obviously upset. "These were good guys—good guys who had our backs against the _really_ bad dudes in the joint, like Tomas and Andrew. Now, we have all made mistakes to get in there, Chief. And I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint. But believe me…we paid our dues—enough that we would rather hit that road than go back into that shit hole."

Rick stared at him contemplatively. He nodded before turning back to Daryl, silently asking for his opinion. Daryl shook his head softly, and Rick looked to Caterina, next to him. She shook her head immediately. In the past, she would've encouraged him to at least give them the opportunity to prove that they weren't against them. But now she wouldn't take the chance.

Rick gave a soft sigh as he turned back to prisoners.

* * *

Daryl locked a chain on the fence to the entrance, leaving Axel and Oscar in the fenced area with the rest of their cars and the front guard tower.

"C'mon, dude," Axel muttered.

Daryl walked back to where the others stood at the end of the bus, completely ignoring the prisoners. They were discussing what they were going to do with them. T-Dog wanted to give them a chance like they had asked and let them into the group. Gabriele agreed with him, believing that they should give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, they hadn't done anything to try and harm any of them. Michele agreed with his son.

"Are you serious?" Rick scoffed. "You want them livin' in a cell next to you? They'll just be waitin' for their chance to grab our weapons. You wanna go back to sleepin' with one eye open?"

"I never stopped," T-Dog sighed. "Bring 'em into the fold. If we send 'em off packin', we might as well just execute 'em ourselves."

"I dunno," Glenn muttered. "Axel seems a little unstable."

"After all we've been through?" Carol whispered. "We fought so hard for this. What if they decide to take it?"

"It's just been us for so long," Maggie pointed out. "They're strangers. I don't… It feels weird all of a sudden to have these other people around too."

"You brought us in," T-Dog reminded her.

"Yeah, but you turned up with a shot boy in your arms. Didn't give us a choice."

The Millers didn't even bother mentioning how they had accepted them in their group. It was obvious why they had: They were Caterina's family, and they trusted Caterina. They would not have accepted them so easily if they were just strangers that Caterina had met. But since they're family, they knew automatically that they could be trusted.

"They can't even kill walkers," Glenn added.

"They're convicts—bottom line," Carol argued.

"Does that really matter?" Michele wondered. "There are very few people today who do not have another's blood on their hands."

T-Dog nodded. "He's right."

"I get guys like this," Daryl jumped in. "Hell, I grew up with 'em. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could've been in there with them just easy as I'm out here with you guys."

"So are you with me?" T-Dog asked hopefully.

"Hell no. Let 'em take their chances out on the road, just like we did."

"What I'm sayin', Daryl—"

"When I was a rookie," Rick spoke up, cutting T-Dog off, "I arrested this kid. Nineteen-year-old, wanted for stabbin' his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby—durin' the investigation, durin' the trial—suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence and then, two weeks later, shot another girl." He looked around at everyone, making sure that they understood what he was getting at. "We've all been through too much. Our deal with 'em stands."

* * *

After gathering the bodies in the field and the courtyard into a pile, the group started back to the entrance, where Oscar and Axel were still locked up.

"Move the cars to that upper yard," Rick instructed. "Point 'em facin' out."

Daryl tossed his keys to Glenn, who took off running ahead of the others.

"They'll be outta the way but ready to go if we ever need to bail."

Rick fell back so that he was walking with T-Dog. When he did, Caterina slowed her pace. She'd been walking behind T-Dog, bringing up the rear. While she didn't agree with T-Dog or her family about taking the prisoners into their fold, she wanted to hear that Rick was at least considering it.

"We'll give the prisoners a week's worth of supplies for the road," Rick stated.

"Might not last a week," T-Dog grumbled.

"Their choice."

"Did they really have one?"

Rick stopped and held his hand out in front of T-Dog, forcing him to a stop. "Hey. Whose blood would you rather have on your hands: Maggie's, Glenn's, or theirs?"

"Neither," he sighed.

He continued on to the entrance, leaving Rick to stare after him with his hands on his hips.

"Do you remember Randall?" Caterina asked as she stepped up next to Rick.

Rick looked at her and nodded, his gaze curious (and was that hope that she saw in his eyes?)

"Back then, I said that we should give him the benefit of the doubt," she reminded him. "He was just a kid who'd gotten in with a wrong crowd. Axel and Oscar—they're degenerates, like Daryl said; they aren't hardened criminals."

"You think I should let 'em stay."

"No."

Rick frowned, obviously confused.

"I already told you, I'm not the same woman I was back at the farm. I don't care about giving people the benefit of the doubt anymore."

Rick stared at the side of her face, seeing as she refused to look away from the rest of the group as they got the vehicles ready. Carol had gotten in to the Hyundai while Daryl was on his motorbike and Michele and Gabriele were in the truck, Glenn and T-Dog standing by the gate and waiting for them to go through so that they could close it again.

"What happened to make you change?" Rick asked carefully, as if he was worried that asking would make her snap.

Caterina finally looked at him. She thought back to what Lori had said, about talking to someone about what she went through. She'd told her family a bit about what happened, but not enough for them to truly understand it. But, for a moment, she thought that maybe she should tell Rick—all of it. Then she remembered what he'd told her, about finding her arrows.

She turned her gaze back on the others. "It doesn't matter."

She saw Rick open his mouth, possibly to argue that it _did_ matter, but he seemed to think better of it. Instead, he just sighed and turned to watch the others with her.

* * *

Caterina stood with Rick, Daryl, and her father in the field while Glenn took a box of food to the prisoners. Her arms were crossed, and she was fidgeting slightly as she stood between the two men. Both of them kept throwing worried glances at her. She knew why Daryl was doing it (she figured that Alison had told him about her PTSD after they had tried to wake her up), but she wasn't so sure why Rick was. She knew that he was able to tell that something was up, especially after what she'd told him about her no longer being the same woman (and the display that he had walked in on that morning), but he didn't seem to know what. Thankfully, no one had told him about her condition yet.

When Glenn rejoined them, they went out to where they had made the hole in the fence when they first arrived at the prison. Glenn undid the lacing so that the four of them could step out.

Glenn raised his gun and motioned to a walker across the water. "Should I take her out?"

"No. If that armory hadn't been picked clean, we could spare the ammo," Rick sighed.

"Cat and I'll start makin' runs," Daryl offered. "The sooner the better."

Rick, Michele, and Glenn started walking off while Daryl and Caterina stayed by the entrance, guarding it from walkers while the three went to the nearest line of trees to start gathering wood.

"We'll throw as much wood as we can in the dog run," Rick said.

"Won't a fire attract more walkers?" Glenn asked."Maybe we should bury 'em."

"We're behind the fence. It's worth the one-time risk to get rid of the bodies for good."

"Rick is right," Michele agreed. "Who knows what it would do to the soil. It would be safer for the rest of us if we just burned them."

The three disappeared into the trees, leaving Caterina and Daryl to themselves. She could see him throwing those glances at her still, and it was starting to get on her nerves.

"If you want to say something, just say it," Caterina ordered after a moment. "The quiet glances are getting annoying."

Daryl threw her another glance before turning his gaze back on the walkers across the water. "What d'you think about what we're doin' with the prisoners?" he asked. "You think it's right?"

"It doesn't really matter now, does it? Rick has already made up his mind. He's not going to change it."

"He might, if you told him to."

Caterina looked at him, wondering why he thought that.

"He listens to you more than any of us," Daryl explained. "He cares more about your opinion then the others'."

She scoffed. "I find that hard to believe."

"It's the truth. He was real broken up when we thought you were dead."

"That's not what I heard."

"Then you didn't hear right."

Caterina stared at him from the corner of her eye, wondering what it was that Daryl wasn't telling her about Rick. While she still hadn't forgiven him for what he told her about knowing that she was alive and acting as if she wasn't, she was looking for a reason to. She wanted to know that he was still the same man that she knew back when they were on the farm, the man who had readily put himself in danger to get Randall off of that fence. She wanted to know that he hadn't just brushed her off because he felt like the others were better off without her.

She shook those thoughts from her head. Now wasn't the time to think about that. She would worry about it later. For now, she would continue to be unforgiving.


	10. Chapter 9

**Author's Note**

And here's part two of that episode! Slightly better writing, I think, but still maybe a little hurried.

Towards the end, I sort of shifted from strictly Caterina's point of view to Daryl's, but that's because I didn't want to go into Caterina's reaction to things, at least not yet. I will in the next chapter.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy! (And another happy birthday to Phoenix :3!)

* * *

Once they had gotten as much wood as they could carry, Rick, Glenn, and Michele walked back to where a Daryl and Caterina were still waiting for them. When they spotted them coming their way, Daryl and Caterina both ducked back into the walkway and held the fence open to make easier for the others to go through. As they did, Caterina looked up to the courtyard across the way and spotted the rest of their group gathered around their favorite veterinarian. He was on crutches.

"Hey, guys," she called to the others. "Look."

They followed Caterina's gaze up to where Hershel and the others were, along with Edgar, who was hopping around at Carl's side. He was obviously happy to be outside again, after being cramped up in that cell for a day and a half.

Glenn laughed in relief and dropped his bundle of wood on the ground. "He is one tough son of a bitch.

Rick nodded in agreement as he dropped his own armful of firewood and stepped up to the other side of the fence. Michele just knelt down and placed his firewood along with the rest, a smile upon his face.

Glenn cupped his hand around his mouth. "All right, Hershel!" he hollered excitedly.

"Shhh! Keep your cheers down," Daryl snapped at him. Glenn turned, and Daryl pointed back out of the fence to where more walkers had come out of the forest.

"Oh man," Glenn groaned." Can't we have just one good day?"

They turned their gazes back on the others, enjoying the view of Hershel back on his feet...well, foot. But their good moods quickly turned sour as they spotted a group of walkers all coming up behind their people, who were staring out at where they stood. Edgar seemed to hear them, because he turned and started barking like he always did when he knew that his people were in danger. Carl turned to see what was wrong and appeared warned the others.

"No!" Rick shouted fearfully.

They took off running back down the walkway towards the entrance. Glenn slid to a stop as he realized that they'd forgotten about the hole in the fence, and he went back to lace it up while the other two continued on.

"Get out!" Rick continued to shout up to the others. "Get outta there! Now! Lori!"

They ran as fast as they could towards the entrance.

"Go! Come in here!"

Once they reached the gate to the front entrance, which Glenn had just previous locked to keep the prisoners in that fenced area, Rick and the others quickly slid to a stop, realizing that none of them had the key to the lock.

"The lock!"

"Hurry up!" Daryl shouted back to Glenn.

Glenn came barreling around the corner behind them and tossed the keys to Caterina, who turned and tossed them to Daryl, who quickly threw them to Rick so that he could unlock the gate. In his hurry, Rick fumbled with the keys, his hands shaking with adrenaline.

"C'mon!" Rick growled in frustration.

Not quickly enough, Rick finally undid the lock, and Glenn pulled the chain away so that Rick could throw open the gate. He tore around the corner to the other gate, which lead on to the field. Oscar stood in front of it, seemingly having stepped closer to get a look at what was going on back up in the courtyard.

"Outta my way!"

Oscar stepped back immediately so that Rick could get to the second lock.

"C'mon, c'mon!" Daryl shouted encouragingly.

Rick had just as much trouble with this lock as he had the first, and it seemed like forever before he finally managed to stick the key in and turn it. But once he did, he tore the chain away, to toss it aside, forgotten, so he could open the gate. He and the rest of the group hurried out into the field as they made their way up to where the others were.

"Hey, bro, what about us?" Axel shouted after them.

They ignored the prisoners, their attention focused solely on the group of walkers that had gotten somehow too close to their people.

For the last time, Rick had to stop and unlock the gate, to let them into the courtyard where there were still a few walkers meandering about. It seemed like the others had taken out a majority of them before going to safety.

"Let's go! Pull it!" Rick cried.

Daryl pulled the gate open, and the rest hurried through out into the courtyard with Daryl at their heels. Rick shot and killed two walkers while Glenn put his machete to another's head. Once the immediate threat was dealt with, Rick turned to where Beth, Gabriele, and Hershel were cordoned off in a gated area at the top of some stairs along with Edgar, who had finally stopped barking now that everyone was safe, while Daryl, Caterina, and Michele worked to get rid of all the remaining walkers.

"What the hell happened?" Rick demanded.

"The gate was open!" Beth gasped, obviously still in shock about what had just happened.

"Where's Lori? Carl? Everyone else?"

"Alison and Maggie lead your family into C Block," Gabriele explained.

"And T was bit!" Beth added.

"Anyone else?" Rick asked. It was obvious that he only really cared to hear that his family hadn't gotten bit.

"I couldn't tell."

Rick nodded anxiously. "Stay put," he instructed before he turned and fired a shot into the last remaining walker.

Glenn hurried over to where Rick had gone to take a look at the gate that they'd locked before and had somehow opened, while Daryl put in a new bolt in his crossbow and Caterina readied another throwing knife. "Those chains didn't break on their own," Glenn observed. "Someone took an axe or cutters to them."

Rick turned immediately to look accusingly at Axel and Oscar, who were only just now passing through the gate leading into the main courtyard.

"You think they did it?" Glenn asked.

"Who else?" Rick growled.

As if to answer his question, an alarm suddenly started going off from the prison. It sounded like the alarm that went off when a prisoner escaped. The only way someone would be able to activate that particular alarm was by pulling a lever. There was no way to time it. And Axel and Oscar had been locked away in that entrance area, meaning that someone else had to have cut the lock.

The group started pacing anxiously while Caterina just turned on the spot, looking for the sound system.

"What is that?" Glenn shouted over the alarm.

"It is an alarm used to warn the prison about an escaped convict," Michele explained.

"Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me!" Daryl growled, staring out across the yard.

Caterina turned to see what he was staring at. She groaned as she spotted walkers coming up to the fence. They had somehow gotten into the field from somewhere. Her first thought was the hole that they had made. Maybe Glenn hadn't closed it properly. But then she realized that they were coming from a different part of the prison. Probably from whatever breech there was that had allowed the civilian walkers into the prison walls.

Rick turned and tossed the keys to Daryl so that he could close the gate leading to the courtyard, in case any walkers somehow managed to get into the field. While he did that, Rick turned and shot at one of the speakers.

"Kill it!" he ordered.

Caterina snatched up her Beretta and turned hurriedly to follow his example, shooting at another set of speakers.

Rick turned to where Hershel, Gabriele, and Beth stood. There was another speaker next to fenced area the three were in there. "Back up!"

Gabriele ushered Hershel and Beth back immediately, Edgar following loyally, allowing Rick to shoot out their speaker. Thankfully, it at least lessened the noise, but the siren could still be heard from inside of the prison itself. Rick turned his revolver on the two prisoners standing with them in the courtyard. Daryl had trained it crossbow on them already while Caterina held one of her throwing knives, twirling it between her fingers dangerously.

"How the hell can this be happening?" Rick demanded.

Oscar raised his hands in surrender, his eyes wide. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! It has to be the backup generator!"

"Well, how do you turn those on?"

"There's three that's connected to a diesel tank, okay?" Oscar replied. "Each one controls certain part of the prison. The hacks shut 'em all off when the prison was overrun."

"Can someone open up the main gates electronically with full power?" Rick asked.

"I only worked in there a few days. I-I guess it might be possible."

Rick grabbed Oscar by the front of his jumper. "Come with us! Let's go!" He turned and ran into C Block, the rest of his group and the two prisoners right behind him.

* * *

Rick fired a shot into the last walker that had made its way into their cell block. As soon as it was down, he started searching the cells for his wife and son.

"Lori! Carl!"

Caterina and the others came into the cell block. She pulled an arrow from the skull of a walker by a gate into the cell block and passed it to Daryl, who'd so far made it a mission to keep as close to her side as possible. As flattered as she was, she found it somewhat annoying. It was like he thought she suddenly couldn't take care of herself just because she had PTSD.

Daryl nodded to her in thanks and stepped into the cell block, pausing to knock the bolt. "We took down five of 'em in there," he informed Rick.

"There were four in here, but no sign of Lori or any of 'em," Rick added.

"They must've been pushed back into the prison," Glenn decided.

"Wherever they are, they're probably locked up in one of the isolation cells," Caterina sighed. It was the only real place to hide in here.

Rick paced in a circle. "Somebody is playin' games!" he shouted in an almost deranged voice. He spun around to his group and motioned to them with his revolver. "We'll split and look for the others. Whoever gets to generator first, shut 'em down!"

Glenn nodded in understanding and motioned to Michele and Axel. "Let's go!"

He took off running through the side entrance, Axel close at his heel. Michele paused to wink at Caterina before following after them, and Caterina smiled. It was his way of showing that he knew everything would be okay. Unfortunately, she didn't share his sureness.

* * *

Caterina hurried through the halls with Rick, Daryl, and Oscar with only two flashlights to lead the way. It was hard to navigate with the flashing lights any other day, but now it was even harder. Since their prison had been breached, they ran into walkers around almost every corner. It was like that first day all over again, except ten times worse. It was like the sirens had woken up every walker within a ten mile radius and had led them straight to their group.

Oscar finally managed to lead them to the generators. Rick fired a shot at one of the walkers following them before going in through the door to the generator room. The rest followed behind him closely.

"Daryl, Cat, get the door!" Rick ordered.

Daryl and Caterina closed the door before any walkers could get through. Some hands poked through the doorway, but they pulled back when the door was slammed on them. The two struggled to keep the doors closed as the walkers banged on them, so Oscar hurried to help them while Rick scoped the room, searching for anymore walkers, or maybe other prison survivors.

He went to what Caterina supposed was the breaker box that operated the generators. "How do you shut these down?" he asked.

Oscar looked down at Daryl and Caterina questioningly, waiting for their permission to leave.

"Go help him! We got it!" Daryl assured him. He and Caterina pressed themselves more firmly to the door to keep it closed while Oscar rushed off to help Rick with the generators.

"Right here," Oscar said. He motioned to a hose that connected one of the generators to a tank set on top of it.

Rick pulled the screw, and the generator started shutting down. He went to make sure that it was what it was doing and was suddenly attacked by Andrew, who came around the corner and started swinging an axe. Oscar ducked away while Rick jumped back to avoid being hit. He grabbed the handle of the axe, and he and Andrew struggled to overpower the other. Andrew ended up pushing Rick into more of the generators.

After a moment of struggle, Rick managed to use the end of their axe to hit Andrew in the ribs, causing him to buckle over and allowing Rick to gain the upper hand. He pushed Andrew into the breaker box behind him before tossing him into some lockers. All the while, Andrew kept a strong hold on the axe.

Andrew threw the end of the axe into Rick's ribs just as he had done to him, and Rick was forced to let up his grip. He stumbled back while Andrew lost the axe himself, and Rick pulled out his revolver. Before he could aim it, though, Andrew knocked the gun from his hand and tackled Rick to the floor to prevent him from getting it back.

Daryl and Caterina could no longer keep the doors closed, and Daryl grabbed Caterina by her tank top and pulled her away from the doors with him, to where Daryl had dropped his crossbow so that he could focus on the doors. He picked it up and shot one of his bolts into the first walker's head while Caterina threw one of her knives into another. They both took out their respective hunting knives and stabbed them into one walker (only one, because all they wanted to do was clear enough that they would be able to keep the doors shut). They knocked the walkers to the sides and closed the door again.

Andrew jumped up from Rick and grabbed his axe before he could get on to his feet himself. He made to swing down at him, but he was hit by a small tank, which knocked him down, and the axe fell from his hand. Rick got back to his feet at the same time that Oscar grabbed his revolver. He aimed it in their direction.

Rick immediately raised his hand as if he were going to try and talk him down.

Andrew got to his feet and pointed at Rick's back. "Shoot him!" he encouraged the other prisoner, panting hard from his scuffle with Rick. "We can take back this prison."

Oscar didn't move a muscle. He just continued to stare at the two as if he were conflicted.

"What're you waitin' for?" Andrew snapped. "Do it! It's our house! Shoot him!"

Oscar shifted the aim of the gun slightly to the left and fired. Rick turned his head at the same time his hand went up, as if he hoped to stop the bullet before it hit his head. But instead of feeling the bullet hit him, he heard a thump behind him. He lowered his hand to look at Oscar.

Daryl had been creeping up on Oscar's side, his knife raised in case he needed to take Oscar out, while Caterina stayed at the door, keeping it closed in case any more walkers came. But she made sure to keep a close eye on the men.

Oscar released his grip on the trigger and flipped the gun in his hand so that he was holding it facing down, that same frightened look still on his face. Rick relaxed and took the revolver from him with a nod of thanks.

He went over to the breaker and turned two large handles. As soon he did, they heard the generators whirring down, and the alarm finally stopped.

"Let's go," Rick muttered.

* * *

They started to make their way back to the courtyard. Rick had turned on his flashlight and was on point while Oscar held up the back, Daryl and Caterina both in the middle, side-by-side.

They paused at a corner and pressed their backs to either wall. He nodded to the others and was about to step out around the corner when Glenn, Michele, and Axel sudden came from around the corner that they had just passed. Rick nodded to them before slowly moving to the next corner. They could hear walkers growling at the end of the hall. He jumped out, gun raised, while the others hurried past the turn.

The walkers were feeding on someone (and, judging by the clothes, it was T-Dog). When they saw them, the walkers got on to their feet. The group made it towards them, and Rick took the walkers out.

They stood over T-Dog's half-eaten body silently. Rick kept motioning to it with his handgun, seemingly wanting to say something but not being able to. Glenn turned to step from the area, unable to look at the body anymore. Michele was mumbling a prayer to himself. Caterina just stared down at the body with a tired look on her face. She could see Daryl looking at her from the corner of her eye, and she knew that he was worried about her reaction. So she turned away from their friend's corpse and looked to the floor nearby, where she spotted the scarf hat that Carol had been wearing. She picked it up, and she and Rick exchanged looks.

* * *

Caterina ran out into the main courtyard, the rest of their group right behind her.

"Hershel!" Glenn shouted to their oldest member. He, Gabriele, and Beth had stepped out of the caged area (Gabriele in front with Edgar at his side, a gun held at the ready in case any more walkers came), but they hadn't left the steps.

"You didn't find them?" Hershel asked.

"We thought maybe they came back out here."

The three shook their heads.

"We have not seen anyone else," Gabriele said.

"What about T? Carol?" Hershel wondered.

"They didn't make it," Daryl replied.

"That doesn't mean the others didn't," Rick pointed out. "We're goin' back. Daryl, Cat, Michele, Glenn, ya'll come with"

He broke himself off as they heard the sound of an infant crying. Everyone turned to the noise to find Alison, Maggie ,and Carl coming out of C-Block, Alison holding a newborn baby wrapped in an old jean jacket in her arms. All three looked traumatized: Alison and Maggie were shaking, and Carl just looked like he was in shock.

Rick stared at them for a moment before starting to approach, dropping the axe so he could run a hand over his face. He shook his head slowly in denial as he put two and two together. There was Alison holding his wife's newborn infant, and his wife was nowhere to be seen. Not to mention the guilt and grief in her eyes as she stared back at Rick.

Maggie tried to speak, but she just ended up making odd noises. Her lips were shaking too badly for her to speak properly.

Rick started pacing. "Wh-where is she? Where is she?"

When Maggie didn't say anything, Rick turned to Alison, expecting her to answer. Alison swallowed a lump in her throat and slowly shook her head, her grip on the baby tightening.

Rick started to walk to the entrance to C block. Maggie tried to reach out for Rick's arm. "No. Rick, no!"

Rick looked back at her before turning to Carl, who hadn't looked up from the ground. Rick's gun fell to the ground as he gave a sob, and he brought his hands up to his eyes. "Oh, no. No..." He started pacing in his grief, tossing his arms as he tried to figure out what to do with them.

Glenn walked over to Maggie, who was sobbing at this point. He grabbed her face gently, forcing her to look at him. She just sobbed harder, and Glenn held her against him tightly.

Gabriele ran down the steps where he had been standing with Hershel and Beth, to approach his fiancé. As soon as he neared her, Alison hurried forward and wrapped one arm around his neck, sure to keep the baby secured at her side. Gabriele embraced her as much as he dared with the baby in her arms, muttering in her ear.

Michele watched the two of them from where he stood at Daryl's side, his jaw tense. His eyes, which were usually so warm and full of life, were saddened now.

Rick paced a few feet more before dropping on to the ground on his back. He kicked his legs for a moment and turned on to his side so that he could curl up into ball, letting the sobs rack through his body.

Daryl stared at the ground for a moment, wanting to give the others privacy. But then he realized that he should probably be comforting Caterina, since she had been close with Lori. He turned to where she had been standing on his other side, but she was gone. He turned around quickly, trying to locate her as his heart leapt into his throat, his mind immediately going for the worst. He relaxed when he spotted her walking off into the field, a shovel over her shoulder.

He made to take a step after her but was forced to a stop as he felt a hand fall on his shoulder. He turned to Michele, a frown on his lips. Michele just shook his head. Daryl's frown deepened, and he turned back to the field to watch as Caterina slowly disappeared from view.


	11. Chapter 10

**Author's Note**

So I hadn't planned on getting this chapter out so early, but I had this idea in my head and I wanted to get it out to you guys as soon as possible, since the last two chapters were sort of boring (and I apologize profusely for that). Hopefully this one is much better, although I'm not so sure about the writing.

Anyway, please enjoy!

* * *

Caterina dug away in the back far corner of the prison field, a few beads of sweat running down her face. It wasn't that hot outside—at least, it wasn't a heat that she wasn't used to from her time in Iraq—but she had been moving fairly quickly, wanting to get these holes dug as soon as possible, and the exertion was getting to her. She had tied Carol's scarf around her bicep, just above elbow, to get it out of the way and to avoid getting any sweat on it.

She refused to think that Carol was dead. Until they found the body or found her as a walker, she would continue to believe that she was alive. When time permitted, she planned to use the scarf to find her. While a blood hound Edgar was not, he had a good nose. He could distinguish between a smell, so she wasn't worried about her own scent covering Carol's.

Normally, she would assume that she was dead. After all, she was sure that there was a horde of walkers in the prison halls. It would be hard for just one person to get away, especially one person who didn't have very many weapons on her. But she was determined to find Carol alive. They had lost enough people already, and Caterina was determined to keep as many of their people alive as she could.

Caterina halted in her digging as she heard the engine of Daryl's bike coming up behind her. She turned and watched as Daryl came to a stop a few feet away from her. He had her crossbow in his hand while his own was strapped to his back along with a dark blue backpack, over some kind of parka.

He cut the engine as he glanced over the hole that Caterina had almost finished.

"Drop the shovel and let's go," he ordered. "We gotta make a run."

"What are we looking for?" she asked, shovel still in hand.

"Formula, for the baby."

Caterina straightened up slightly at that. Ever since it had been made known that Lori and T-Dog were dead, her head had been swimming with thoughts of those two and Carol. She'd completely forgotten about the baby.

"Maggie says there's a shopping center close by that should have some."

"If Maggie knows where it is, why not take her?" she asked. While she didn't mind the thought of going with Daryl on a run, she didn't want anything to distract her from digging the graves. The sooner that she got them done, the sooner she could take Edgar and start looking for Carol.

"She's still shook up 'bout what happened," Daryl replied. "I wanted someone who's still got their head on straight."

Caterina raised an eyebrow. "And naturally you chose me," she observed in a sarcastic tone.

"I never said it was a good choice."

She gave an amused huff at the insult. "Thanks, Daryl."

Daryl just motioned for her over. "C'mon."

Caterina stabbed the shovel into the ground next to the hole and stepped up out of it. She figured that someone would take up for her when they were gone, so she might as well keep it there for it. She dusted her hands off as she approached Daryl, who held her crossbow out for her. She grabbed it and threw the strap over her shoulder before taking Daryl's crossbow and the backpack and getting on the back of the bike. She put it over her other shoulder so she could wrap both arms around Daryl's waist.

Once she was secured on the back, Daryl restarted the engine. "Hang on tight," he called over it.

The corners of Caterina's lips turned up slightly, and she tightened her grip on Daryl's waist. She saw him nod to himself, and then they were off.

* * *

The outside of the shopping center was overrun. Walkers were meandering about outside, probably having just been moving through before deciding to stay. So Daryl and Caterina decided to move on. She had spotted what looked like a nursery on their way to the store, so they doubled back to it. They had to cut through the forest in order to keep the shopping center walkers from knowing where they went. Not to mention there was too much debris and too many cars on the main road. It would keep them from going too fast, and they had to outrun the walkers that had spotted them. Not to mention it was better going the back way, in case there were more walkers near the nursery. A motorcycle wasn't exactly quiet.

Daryl pulled to a stop by the backyard and killed the engine. Caterina stepped off quickly, her eyes scanning the smallish building in front of them as she pulled Daryl's crossbow from her shoulder. There was a swing set and monkey bars in the back, along with a red toy race car.

"Company's close," Daryl muttered as he got off the bike. "Stay tight."

Caterina nodded and held his crossbow out to him, and he took it.

Caterina pulled her own crossbow around to her front, and the two walked in to the back yard through the surrounding fence.

As she approached one of the back windows, she motioned it for Daryl to keep an eye out. He nodded in understanding and turned his back on her so he was of facing the back woods. Caterina turned back to the window and cupped her hand around her eyes so that she could peek inside. She couldn't see anything that looked like a body, which was a good sign. Though that didn't mean there weren't any walkers inside. Still, she drew her elbow back and forced it through the glass. It shattered, and she knocked out the rest of the glass, ignoring as a few pieces cut into her elbow.

She climbed through into the room, and she paused for a moment to look around. It looked like a playroom. There were two cribs in there, probably for any infants that were taken to the nursery, along with a whole bunch of toddler toys lying about. And there was a changing station next to the sink.

"How's it look?" Daryl called from the backyard.

"It's clear."

She exchanged her crossbow for the bag and made her way over to the sink. She knelt down and opened the bottom cabinet. There were diapers there, along with a few bottles and some rags. She wasn't sure what all they would need (she had never taken care of a baby before), so she grabbed everything and started stuffing it into the bag.

She heard Daryl step through the window with a grunt.

Once she had everything she thought they needed, she returned the bag to her back and grabbed it her crossbow again. She turned to Daryl and motioned to the door leading out into the hallway.

He nodded and walked over to it. He poked his head through to check the hallway before giving the all clear. Caterina stepped out with him, and she motioned down to the right of the hallway, silently telling Daryl to check that way. Daryl nodded and started down that way, crossbow held at the ready. Caterina watched his back for a moment before turning down the other way.

She passed by a small kitchen. It had one of this two-way doors, with the top and bottom sections separated. She made a mental note to check in there once she had cleared the rest of the rooms before moving on.

She only managed to clear two other rooms before she heard something rattling in the kitchen. She turned quickly, her crossbow held out in front of her readily. She'd been sure that the kitchen was clear.

At the other end of the hall, Daryl turned and hurried down the hall towards her silently. Caterina moved forward to meet him by the kitchen, and they both paused. He stuck the end of the flashlight into his mouth. He nodded for her to stay where she was while he peeked into the room. When he didn't see anything, he reached over the half door to open it. He stepped into the room, with Caterina at his heels, and the rattling was heard again, coming from the cupboards apparently. He nodded for Caterina to open them, and she stepped around to the other side before reaching for the unlatched door. She glanced at Daryl to make sure that he was ready and threw it open. She was surprised when she all saw an opossum inside.

It hissed at the sudden intrusion before it was silenced by one of Daryl's bolts.

"Hello, dinner," he muttered around his flashlight.

"You enjoy that," Caterina muttered in slight disgust. She had tried opossum before, over those months that she had been on her own, and she hadn't enjoyed it. The meat had an odd taste to it, and it was way too greasy.

"What, you don't like opossum?"

"No. And before you ask, yes, I have tried it."

"Never knew you were so damn picky," Daryl muttered.

"I'm not," Caterina argued calmly. She had heard the teasing in his voice, so she knew not to take it personally. Instead, she decided to tease him back. "If I were picky, why would I bother kissing you?"

He flinched dramatically at the retort. "You ain't gotta be so mean."

Caterina shook her head with a grin and turned to the cabinets on the back wall. She tossed her bag and crossbow on to the counter and opened the cabinets, only to be stared in the face with two large cans of liquid baby formula. "Found it," she expressed. She grabbed the cans and turned to show them to Daryl. "But only two."

"It should be fine for now," he grunted. "We can find more later."

Caterina nodded and turned to stuff the cans into her bag.

"So what's goin' on between you and Rick?" Daryl asked out of nowhere.

She didn't even paused in her work. She had been expecting Daryl to ask at some point. But that didn't mean that she was going to answer him truthfully, if at all. "What makes you think there's anything going on?" she replied calmly.

He scoffed. "Please. A blind man could see the tension between you two."

Caterina didn't say anything. She just zipped up the bag and tossed it over her shoulder.

"So what happened?" he pressed. "You have a spat or somethin'?"

She turned around to look at him, her arms crossed over her chest. "You said before that Rick didn't react well to my supposed death. What did you mean?"

Daryl frowned slightly, knowing that she was stalling, but he decided to play along. "He went crazy. When we found your tags on the corpse, he went on a walker killin' spree." He blinked, seeming to remember something. "Speaking of…" He reached into his shirt for the dog tags that were still hanging around his neck, and he pulled the chain from his neck to hold the necklace out to her. "Here."

"No, that's okay. You keep them. They look better on you anyway."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," she assured him with a slight smile. "Besides, you seem to like wearing them more than I do."

Daryl frowned at her, confused.

"Don't think I haven't noticed that chain around your neck day in and day out," she teased.

An abashed look crossed over Daryl's face before it was replaced with his usual expression, and he scoffed as he pulled the chain back over his head and tucked the tags under his shirt. She just watched him with an amused look on her face.

"You know, normally it's the girl wearing her lover's tags," Caterina pointed out.

Daryl looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Lovers?"

Caterina's smile fell as she realized what she'd said. Blood immediately started pooling in her cheeks, and she lowered her gaze to the floor (but not before spotting the amusement on Daryl's face as he stared at her). "Well," she muttered, "when I say lovers, I just mean it's a generic term for two people who are in some kind of relationship."

"What kind of relationship is this then?"

Caterina looked back at him from under her lashes. His expression had turned serious again, but there was still a bit of amusement in his eyes.

She didn't say anything for a moment. She had been wondering the same thing herself. She thought at first that they were maybe dating (at least the only way that two people could date in the apocalypse), but for some reason it didn't seem to fit. The only time they had moments like these was when they were alone, and even then they only mostly flirted with each other. They didn't all really act like that kind of couple.

"I don't know," she admitted after a moment. "What kind of relationship do you think it is?"

Daryl looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, I'm not gonna go around callin' you my girlfriend."

Caterina frowned, unable to keep herself from feeling hurt, even though she agreed that the word boyfriend didn't fit with him. "Why not?" she demanded.

He shrugged, either ignoring the hurt in her voice or not hearing it. "Just don't feel right." He turned thoughtful again. "But lover sounds about right," he muttered. He then pointed it at her with a slight smirk. "But that means you owe me somethin' when we get through here."

Caterina flushed red. "Daryl!" she hissed at him.

"What?" he asked, as if he didn't think he'd said anything wrong. He paused to take in her red face, and his smirk widened. "You thought I was talkin' 'bout sex? I wasn't even thinkin' along those lines."

Caterina turned even redder, realizing that it had only been her mind that had gone to sex.

Daryl shrugged. "But if that's what you wanna do…"

She turned away from him quickly and grabbed her crossbow. "Okay, that's enough out of your mouth, Mr. Dixon," she said, a little louder than she meant to, but she just wanted to shut him up. "Let's just find whatever else we can for the baby and go."

With that, she waltzed out of the kitchen without waiting for him to follow.

"Yes, ma'am."

He followed Caterina back out into the hallway, and the two stepped into another nursery room, to see if they couldn't find anything else for the baby. They were silent for a moment as they each searched their own corners. While she looked through a small chest of blankets, Caterina thought about what they had been talking about, before it had turned into that embarrassing conversation.

"He knew I was alive," she spoke up after a moment.

She heard Daryl stop whatever he was doing, and she could suddenly feel his gaze on her back.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Rick knew I was alive," Caterina repeated. "I ran out of bolts a few weeks in, so I took to making my own. I don't know why, but I started carving my initials into them. I was probably hoping that one of you would find them and know that I'd been in the area." She shrugged, as if it didn't really matter. "Anyway, Rick found some after you found my tags."

"And he didn't say nothin'?"

"He said you were a wreck when you thought that I was alive, surviving out there on my own, but you started getting better when you believed that I was dead. He said he didn't want you to go back to the way you were. He thought it was for the best."

"He told you that?"

"Yeah…" she muttered.

It was silent for a moment as Daryl seemed to soak this in. Then…

"That son of a bitch."

Caterina turned at the angry tone in his voice. She immediately saw how tense his jaw had become and she could see that his grip on his crossbow had tightened. He was staring at the ground with an enraged look in his eye.

She took a cautious step towards him. "Daryl, calm down."

His eyes snapped up to hers, and she couldn't help but flinch at the anger there. "Calm down?" he snapped. "How the hell do you expect me to calm down?" He took an angry step forward, but Caterina didn't step down. "He let us think you were dead!"

"Like I said, he thought it was for the best," she explained in a calm tone.

"Well, he was wrong!" he snarled. "I shoulda left when I first thought of it."

"If you had, we might not have found each other."

"Or I might've found you sooner," he argued.

Caterina didn't say anything against it.

Daryl scoffed angrily and turned away from her, tossing his hands.

"In a way, it's a good thing you didn't," Caterina admitted.

He turned back to her, his glare still in place. "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Because then I might not have found my family."

Daryl blinked, seeming to realize what she was saying.

She took a step forward to place her hand on the junction of his shoulder and neck. She could feel how tense he was, and it worried her. She could only guess that, if she didn't calm him down, once they returned the prison, Daryl would immediately attack Rick about what she had just told him. And she didn't want that. While she would appreciate having him on her side, she wanted to keep this between her and Rick.

"Look, I'm just as upset as you, but I don't want you confronting him about it when we get back."

"Why the hell not?" Daryl growled.

"Because this is between me and him. I just…felt like you should know."

Daryl stared at her for a moment, breathing a little heavily from the anger he'd felt just moments before. She watched as the anger finally seemed to seep away, and the tension in his shoulders lessened. Finally, he nodded.

Caterina smiled. "Thank you."

She leaned forward and pecked him on the corner of his lips before dropping her hand and turning away from him.

* * *

It was dark by the time that they made it back to the prison. As they got closer, they could hear someone banging on the fences and shouting, apparently to draw any nearby walkers' attention away from the approaching motorcycle. Daryl and Caterina were pretty exposed on it, and either one of them could be torn from the bike if one of the walkers managed to get their hands on them.

When they passed through the trees, she saw that it was Oscar and Axel who were banging and shouting, while Glenn and Maggie were standing up in the tower. The two shot and killed the two walkers that hadn't been drawn in by Oscar and Axel, keeping them from getting to Caterina and Daryl.

While Oscar hurried to the gate and opened it, Axel kept by the fence, still trying to keep walkers distracted.

"You want some of this?" he shouted. "C'mon! C'mon!"

Daryl drove through the entrance and up to the prison, the others following behind them at slower pace. He parked his bike with the rest of the cars in the main courtyard, and he and Caterina both jumped off. They didn't bother waiting for the others and hurried into the cellblock.

"Alison!" Caterina called to her friend as she passed through the door.

Alison hurried forward from where she stood with Caterina's family and followed her over to one of the tables. A lantern had been set up there, which would give them some illumination so that they could get the formula ready. Caterina tossed her bag on to the table and immediately start rifling through it, pulling out everything that they had gotten at the nursery.

While she did that, Daryl went over to Carl, who was holding his little sister.

"How's she doin'?" he asked.

Alison grabbed the bottle and formula, ignoring the rest of what they'd gotten for the moment. Caterina handed her the buck knife, which she used to make a hole in one of the cans. Caterina unscrewed the lid on bottle and held it out for Alison to pour the formula in. Once it had been filled, Caterina returned the lid on to the bottle and turned, expecting to give it to Carl. She paused, however, as she saw that Daryl was the one holding the crying baby, softly cradling her in his arms.

Daryl looked up at her and motioned for her to bring the bottle.

Caterina snapped out of her staring and hurried over, passing the bottle to him.

"Thanks," he muttered. He flipped the bottle in his hand so it was pointing down and pressed the nipple to a baby's lip. "C'mon. C'mon," he encouraged her gently.

The crying immediately stopped as she started sucking out the milk, while Daryl moved side to side in a sort of rocking motion. Caterina watched the two with a soft smile on her lip.

She looked over as Alison stepped to her side. She grinned at her, as if she knew what she was thinking. Caterina just shook her head and turned back to Daryl.

He looked up at her at the same time and smiled, which only made her smile grow wider.

"You look pretty good with a baby, Daryl," Alison pointed out. "Don't you think so, Cat?

Caterina nodded. "Yeah. I can almost picture you as a dad like this," she teased. Although, that was actually was she was thinking as she stared at him. You wouldn't think that Daryl would make a good father figure, what with his temper and how easily he let it get to him, and how unsocial and crude he was. But, looking at him with the Grimes baby, he looked like he was born to be a father.

"Let's see how good you look with one," Daryl decided.

Caterina immediately shook her head, her smile gone. "No, that's okay."

Daryl was already stepping towards her. Caterina made to step back, but she was stopped by Alison's arm at her back. She glared back at her before turning back around to Daryl.

"C'mon. It ain't like she's gonna bite you," Daryl tried to reassure her. "She don't have teeth."

"I've never held a baby before…" she explained, hoping that he would understand and let the subject drop. But he didn't seem to want to play along this time.

"It's easy," he pressed. "C'mere." He stopped in front of her and held the baby out to her, his gaze expectant. Caterina paused before reluctantly holding out her arms to receive the baby. Daryl immediately placed her in her arms. "You just gotta cradle her."

Caterina curled her arms towards her like Daryl had been doing.

"Just like that."

He grabbed one of Caterina's and pulled it out from under the baby, seeing as she had her secure with her other arm, to place her hand on the bottle. She glanced up at him hesitantly but took their bottle from his grasp. She glanced back down at the baby, who hadn't made a sound as she was being passed from Daryl's grasp into Caterina's. She just continued to suck away on the nipple as if nothing had happened.

Everyone was silent as they watched Caterina with the baby.

Daryl moved around her so that he stood at her back, staring at the baby over Caterina's shoulder. He rested one hand on her waist while the other went up to cradle the baby's head.

He looked over at Carl, who was watching his baby sister in Caterina's arms with a soft smile. "She got a name yet?" he asked.

"Not yet," Carl replied. "I was thinking…maybe Sophia."

Caterina looked up at him at that.

"Then there's Carol too. And… " He sighed. "Andrea, Amy, Jacqui, Patricia, or…Lori." He looked to the ground as that name crossed his lips and kicked his feet. "I don't know."

Caterina felt Daryl shift behind her and watched from the corner of her eye as he moved his face a little closer to the baby's, and in turn Caterina's. "Yeah…" he cooed as the baby continued to down the formula. "You like that? Huh? Little ass-kicker."

Caterina laughed outright at that. Leave it to Daryl Dixon to come up with a name like that.

Daryl grinned up at her before looking around at the others. "Right? That's a good name, right?"

The others laughed and nodded in agreement.

Daryl looked back down at the baby. "Little ass-kicker," he murmured. "You like that, huh?" He moved his hand from the baby's head to gently stroke her nose. "You like that, sweetheart?"

"If ever there were a Kodiak moment in the apocalypse, this would definitely be it," Alison spoke up.

Caterina and Daryl looked up at Alison curiously. She just grinned hugely at them along with Michele. Even Gabriele, who had at some point moved to his fiance's side along with his father, had a small smile on his lips.

"You three look really good together," Alison continued.

Caterina's face turned red for the third time that day, and she quickly lowered her face back to the baby, to keep the others from seeing her blush. "Shut up…" she grumbled, to which the others just laughed again.

She glanced at Daryl from the corner of her eye. He was still staring in Alison's direction, now with a thoughtful look on his face. He didn't look away until he seemed to feel Caterina's gaze on her, and he turned his eyes back to her. She watched as something flashed across his face and, for some reason, her heart skipped beat in her chest.

* * *

**Author's Note (2)**

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought this was adorable? Because even I had a fangirl moment when I first thought this up, and I don't get those often… Okay, I don't get them when it comes to my own stories.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed!


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